It had to be one of the more painful losses in recent memory for the Montreal Canadiens.

Literally.

Jason Pominville scored a power-play goal 1:09 into overtime lifting the Buffalo Sabres to a 2-1 victory against the injury-depleted Habs at HSBC Arena on Tuesday night.

The Canadiens played much of the game minus two forwards when Michael Cammalleri suffered a separated shoulder and Max Pacioretty was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons after being struck in the right side by teammate James Wisniewski's shot in the first period. Cammalleri will miss at least two weeks.

Tyler Ennis had a goal and assist and Thomas Vanek had a pair of assists for Buffalo, which snapped a four-game losing streak against the Canadiens dating back to last season. The Sabres lost forward Drew Stafford in the first to what the team called a lower-body injury.

David Desharnais scored for Montreal and Carey Price stopped 37 shots.

"I don't think anybody has any reason to hang their heads in here," defenseman P.K. Subban said. "We got a point out of it."

A chippy and entertaining game between Northeast Division rivals was decided by a power-play goal after Scott Gomez was penalized for high-sticking Nathan Gerbe in the final minute of regulation. After being slashed from behind by Gerbe, Gomez retaliated by wheeling around with his stick hand and hitting Gerbe across the face.

Ennis set up the decisive goal by driving up the right side and feeding Vanek, who skated toward the net and fed a blind pass into the slot, where Pominville blasted the puck past Price.

"I'm not going to sit here and blame anyone," Gomez said. "I know better than that. I know not to put myself in that position. I did and it cost us a chance at two points."

The Canadiens still managed to register a point for the eighth time in nine games (6-1-2) despite losing both forwards in the first five minutes.

"It almost feels like a win, getting that point," Price said. "I felt like we were battling uphill all game. Our guys played hard and we had to earn it."

Pacioretty was hurt 4:15 in, when he was parked in front of the Sabres' net and was hit by Wisniewski's shot from the blue line. Conscious and hooked to an IV, he was wheeled in a stretcher to a waiting ambulance during the first intermission.

Cammalleri was hurt 45 seconds earlier and did not return after being cross-checked to the back of the neck by Mike Weber. The Sabres' defenseman was issued a two-minute minor penalty, which led to Desharnais' goal.

Price was brilliant in holding the fort as the Canadiens were losing steam playing on consecutive nights and down two forwards -- three if you include center Jeff Halpern, who had limited playing time after he went to the locker room on several occasions in the first.

Price stopped Jochen Hecht set up in front on a 2-on-1 break midway through the first. And he then took over in the third when it became apparent the Habs were running on fumes.

Price kicked out his left pad to foil Nathan Gerbe's snap shot directly off a faceoff to the left of the net with 12:45 left in regulation. Two minutes later, Price kicked out his left skate to get a piece of Paul Gaustad's shot from the slot.

Price then got some help from defenseman Hal Gill, who got down on one knee to block Rob Niedermayer's attempt to convert the rebound.

Ennis tied the game with a power-play goal 11:21 into the second following a scramble in front.

"It's big, but we have got to have some consistency here," Ennis said. "We've got to build off this."

The Canadiens played their 3,000th NHL road game. They're 1,251-1256-493 away from Montreal.

"Basically nine forwards played the entire game, and I thought we battled hard," coach Jacques Martin said. "I thought we had some chances. It was unfortunate with the ending."

Bruins 3, Hurricanes 2 | HIGHLIGHTS

Tim Thomas made a season-high 43 saves to lead Boston past Carolina at the RBC Center to complete a sweep of a home-and-home series.

"When they started to add up in the second, I was aware, because physically, I could feel it," said Thomas, who won his fourth straight start and a matchup of All-Star goalies. "I was like, 'Whoa, this is a lot of shots."'

Milan Lucic scored the go-ahead goal with 8:11 left. Brad Marchand scored earlier in the third period, Johnny Boychuk added his first goal of the season and Mark Recchi had two assists.

They helped the Northeast Division-leading Bruins win for the fifth time in six games and sweep the series against Carolina after routing the Hurricanes 7-0 in Boston a day earlier.

Jussi Jokinen and Chad LaRose scored, while Cam Ward made 25 saves for the Hurricanes, who have lost three of four since they earned points in eight straight games.

"I still like this team," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. "I think they're learning their lessons as they go."

Lucic's winner came with 53 seconds left on an elbowing minor to the 5-foot-10 LaRose, who was called for elbowing the league's tallest player, 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara. On the decisive play, Recchi skated behind the goal line and found an uncovered Lucic in front of the goal.

Recchi "did a great job. He came down wide with a lot of speed, and he was able to sell like he was going around the net," Lucic said. "It was kind of like the parting of the sea for me, right there in front of the net."

For the Bruins, goals were much tougher to come by than they were a day earlier during the rout in Boston in which Zdeno Chara scored three times and Thomas had yet another shutout.

"I knew they would have a pushback," Thomas said. "I thought we would handle it better than we did. But in the long run, we handled it well, because we found a way to win. But we could have made it a little easier on ourselves."

Generating shots wasn't a problem for much of the night for the Hurricanes, who matched a season high with 19 in the first period and then did it again in the second. By the midpoint of the second period, Carolina's shot total reached well into the 30s -- and, yes, the Bruins' goalie noticed.

"That's when I was like, we need to start taking it to the other end if we're going to win this game," Thomas said. "We can't keep up this type of pace in our zone."

And yet he refused to allow the Hurricanes to put the puck past him with any frequency.

"We didn't get the results that we wanted, but our compete level was there and we were all over them in the second period and couldn't find a way to get the puck to the back of the net," captain Eric Staal said.

Jokinen tied it at 1 with about 3 1/2 minutes left in the first, powering it in from close range on the power play, and LaRose made it 2-2 with 10:41 left -- 2 1/2 minutes before Lucic's goal.

The Bruins, who scored three first-period goals in their blowout win a day earlier, appeared headed for a similar start when they scored just over two minutes in.

After Jokinen was sent off for tripping 17 seconds in, Boychuk ripped a slap shot from the blue line that got past Ward. But that was it for Boston until Marchand backhanded in a rebound to put the Bruins up 2-1 with 16:05 left.

"There's going to be at least two really, really good goaltenders at the All-Star game," Maurice said.

Ducks 2, Senators 1 (SO) | HIGHLIGHTS

Jonas Hiller was perfect in the shootout and Bobby Ryan scored in the tie-breaker as Anaheim edged Ottawa at Scotiabank Place.

Ryan fired a shot past Brian Elliott on the Ducks' second attempt after Mike Fisher hit the right post on Ottawa's second shot. Hiller had already stopped Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson's backhand when he denied Erik Karlsson on Ottawa's final attempt for the win. He stopped 39 shots for Anaheim, which won the opener of a four-game road trip.

"I don't know if he earned a star tonight but he certainly won a game," Ryan said. "We got outplayed in a lot of aspects of that game and he did his job. It was incredible."

Corey Perry gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead with a highlight-reel tally 14:30 in for his 24th goal and 50th point, both team highs.

"We found a way to win," Perry said. "Hillsy played pretty well for us tonight and he stole a game again."

Fisher drew Ottawa even late in the second. Elliott made 26 saves, including a huge stop on Matt Beleskey's breakaway midway through the third.

"It's tough but we did a good job coming back and evening it up and we played well in overtime," Elliott said. "I think we had our chances throughout the game. Their goalie played well and they played well in front of him. We've just got to take the positives. We played a really good game and got a lot of opportunities so we've got to take that and put it in our pocket and go to the next game."

The Ducks, who have won eight of 10, came close to winning it late in the third when Teemu Selanne put a drive from the right side off the post after Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle used his timeout with 57.3 seconds left in regulation.

"I don't think it was that good a game from us," said Selanne, who has 99 game-winning goals. "We looked pretty sluggish there and I think they had more scoring chances than we did, but obviously Jonas was great in the net. He made some big saves and gave us a chance to win so we'll take these two points but I can't say we're very happy with how we played."

Ottawa outshot Anaheim 40-27 overall, including 15-10 in the first and 13-3 in the second. The Senators, who have been held to two goals or less in seven of their last eight games, have lost three in a row overall and five straight at home.

"It was very similar to probably seven of our last nine games," coach Cory Clouston said. "We work extremely hard, we outchance a team, outwork them, and somehow we don't outscore them. There's not a whole lot more we can as far as effort is concerned. As far as execution is concerned, we've just got to find ways to score."

The Senators had a number of scoring chances in the opening period, but it was the Ducks who came out of the first with a 1-0 lead. Hiller made a glove save to deny Bobby Butler on a breakaway and defenseman Sergei Gonchar hit a post.

Perry was falling to the ice when he put a backhand of Ryan's point shot over Elliott, who was lying on the ice with his pads stacked, leaving the top half of the net wide open for the Ducks' all-star forward.

Fisher scored late in the second to tie it at 1. Senators left wing Milan Michalek battled to maintain possession while he was on his back in the slot. The puck came free and Hiller stuck out his left pad to stop Fisher's initial shot, but Fisher backhanded the rebound in off the left post for his 13th goal at 18:19.

Lightning 3, Blue Jackets 2 (SO) | HIGHLIGHTS

Ryan Malone scored the only goal of a shootout in the fourth round, Steven Stamkos had two goals during regulation and the Southeast Division-leading Lightning beat Columbus at the St. Pete Times Forum.
 
Tampa Bay has played 27 of its 47 games this season on the road and is away from home for games on Thursday and Friday before beginning a 12-game homestand.

"Had a little bit of a slow start, but we battled through," Stamkos said. "It wasn't the prettiest game, but we'll take one to snap out of that little funk. We don't let it go past two games."

Lightning goalie Dwayne Roloson had 28 saves in regulation and four more in the shootout for his 200th NHL win.

"Rollie made the key saves he had to, and we found a way to win," Malone said.

R.J. Umberger and Derick Brassard scored for the Blue Jackets, who were coming off a win and an overtime loss in consecutive games against Central Division-leading Detroit following a five-game losing skid. Goalie Mathieu Garon assisted on Umberger's goal and stopped 20 shots during regulation.

"Yes, I would have loved to have two points, but at the end of the day, we can't dwell over something that comes down to a one-on-one competition," Columbus coach Scott Arniel said.

Tampa Bay took a 2-1 advantage when Stamkos scored his NHL-leading 35th goal of the season from the high slot during a power play at 14:24 of the second. Brassard's rebound goal made it 2-2 with 4:44 to go in the period.

Stamkos has at least one goal in three consecutive games after going six in a row without one.
Umberger put the Blue Jackets up 1-0 from the low slot 7:34 into the game. Stamkos tied it at 1 with 2:08 left in the first on a right-circle shot off a pass from defenseman Victor Hedman, who carried the puck from behind his own net to the Columbus blue line.

Stamkos' first-period goal came 62 seconds after the officials took one away from Columbus right wing Chris Clark because of incidental goalie contact.

Blues 2, Kings 1 | HIGHLIGHTS

Erik Johnson scored the go-ahead goal on a third-period shot that slowly trickled between goalie Jonathan Quick's pads as St. Louis edged Los Angeles at the Scottrade Center.

Blues forward T.J. Oshie was the No. 1 star, returning with a solid effort from a broken left ankle that sidelined him for 31 games.

"Obviously, the legs and lungs aren't where you want them to be. You can't really match a game just skating by yourself," Oshie said after playing nearly 18 minutes over 20 shifts with two shots and a minus-1 rating. "But all is well. Even after a bad shift it was kind of hard to wipe the grin off my face."

Oshie got a loud ovation when he was announced as one of the starters. The Blues were 9-1-2 before Oshie, a first-round draft pick in 2005, was injured, and he led the team in scoring with a goal and nine assists when he was hurt.

"Was it top-notch T.J. Oshie? No," coach Davis Payne said after his team snapped a three-game home losing streak. "But it's the first game in a couple months, so we'll take it."

Patrik Berglund snapped a 3-for-38 power-play drought in the first period for the Blues, who won for the second time in seven games and leapfrogged a point ahead of Los Angeles in the Western Conference standings. Jaroslav Halak raised his career mark against Los Angeles to 7-1, making 26 saves.

Matt Greene ended a 10-game point drought with his first goal of the season for the Kings, who are in a 2-9 slump. Quick made his first start in three games and made 24 saves, but couldn't control Johnson's innocent looking point shot with 6:47 to go.

"I tried to smother it and it got through me," Quick said. "A bad goal at the end of the game cost us."

Kings coach Terry Murray concurred, calling it "a play that you've got to have 100 percent of the time."

Johnson has scored in two straight games and has a point in the last four after getting his fifth goal of the season. He wasn't expecting a goal, and thought Quick might have been distracted by David Backes, who was charging to the net and ended up getting driven into the cage.

"I was just shooting to see what happened, and if it didn't go in Backes was there for the rebound," Johnson said. "Good things happen when you put it there."

Quick refused to use Backes as an excuse, saying "Nope, it went through."

The Blues remain without forwards David Perron and Andy McDonald, both out with concussions. Enforcer Cam Janssen, among the inactives, put his arm around Perron and hustled him out of the press area between the first and second periods.

Payne said neither Perron, out since Oct. 31, nor McDonald, out since Dec. 1, was close to returning.

"No update there," Payne said. "Status quo still, dealing with symptoms and still healing."

Blues defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo was struck in the face by a puck for the second time in four games, felled by Drew Doughty's shot on a rush in the second period. Colaiacovo headed straight for the dressing room and did not return.

Payne said Colaiacovo was struck close to the eye. He was hit just above the mouth the first instance.

Berglund's ninth goal, and first in 11 games, capitalized on a 5-on-3 advantage. Greene tied it at 16:21 of the second with his first goal of the season on a shot from the point that made it through traffic.

Wild 4, Oilers 1 | HIGHLIGHTS

Matt Cullen and Brent Burns scored 1:46 apart early in the first period to set the tone as Minnesota beat Edmonton at Rexall Place.

For NHL.com's full recap, click here.

Material from wire services and team media was used in this report.