Ian Barrett, Associated Press Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury allows the tying goal from the Canadiens' Alex Kovalev in the second period last night in Montreal. Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Dave Molinari on the Penguins: Unlikely Lintner to wear Penguins uniform again Penguins Notebook: Bonk faces Crosby even with injury

MONTREAL -- Guy Carbonneau probably just misspoke.

Hey, it happens.

Especially when a guy has as much on his mind as Carbonneau, the Montreal coach, did while preparing for the Canadiens' game against the Penguins last night.

Surely, that would explain his assessment of the challenges posed by some of the Penguins' gifted forwards.

"I don't know," Carbonneau said, "if just one line is going to be enough to cover Gretzky and Malkin and those guys."

Uh, not quite. On either count.

The only place Carbonneau, one of the finest defensive forwards in NHL history, sees Wayne Gretzky these days is behind the Phoenix Coyotes' bench. And maybe in his nightmares.

And, more important, the Alexander Perezhogin-Radek Bonk-Mike Johnson unit was quite capable of handling most of the heavy lifting against Gretzky (a k a, Sidney Crosby) and his linemates while the outcome of Montreal's 6-3 victory at the Bell Centre was in serious doubt.

At least on those rare occasions when the teams actually played 5-on-5 during the first 40 minutes, when no fewer than 12 power plays were handed out.

Crosby earned an assist to stretch his scoring streak to eight games -- that's two shy of the career-best streak he had Dec. 16-Jan. 7 last season -- but the offense that had averaged six goals during the previous four games was held to half that. In large part because of the goaltending of Cristobal Huet, especially when the Penguins had a 17-3 advantage in shots during the first period.

"Huet was fantastic," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "He kept his team in the game."

Ultimately, though, it was Montreal's special teams that tipped the outcome in its favor. The Penguins' power play was 0 for 7; Montreal's went 4 for 7.

"When you have four power-play goals against, it's pretty tough to win," right winger Mark Recchi said.

The loss ended the Penguins' four-game winning streak and dropped them to 15-12-5. Montreal, meanwhile, improved to 19-8-5. That's good for 43 points, more than any Eastern team except Buffalo. And a lot more than most impartial observers expected them to have at this juncture.

"We knew that, on paper, we probably didn't have as good a squad as a lot of other teams, but we knew ... we could definitely play well," right winger Michael Ryder said. "And we've played really well as a team."

Evgeni Malkin -- that would be Gretzky's buddy -- gave the Penguins a 1-0 edge at 12:05 of the first during a four-on-four, when he punched an Erik Christensen rebound past Huet for his 16th goal of the season.

Ryder got that one back for Montreal by hammering a slap shot past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury during a power play at 18:34, but the Penguins still were able to take a lead into the intermission.

With a few nanoseconds -- or maybe less -- remaining in the period, Penguins defenseman Alain Nasreddine sneaked in and stuck a shot inside the left post, then celebrated with the exuberance of a guy who never had scored before.

Which, coincidentally, he hadn't. The goal was his first point in 31 NHL games.

Nasreddine had to wait a few minutes to learn if the goal counted. The goal judge's light actually flashed green, not red, when his shot entered the net, but a video review confirmed that it was valid.

That was the final highlight of consequence for the Penguins, though.

Alex Kovalev tied the score for Montreal at 9:29 of the second with first goal in 10 games and Saku Koivu put the Canadiens in front to stay at 15:50 as he fought through a hook from Colby Armstrong and stuck a high shot behind Fleury from the inner edge of the left circle.

Sheldon Souray got what proved to be the winner during a five-on-three at 17:25, lashing a shot by Fleury from the top of the right circle while Armstrong and Nasreddine were in the penalty box.

Koivu then rubbed it in with five seconds to go in the period, deflecting in an Andrei Markov shot for Montreal's fourth power-play goal.

After Christensen got the Penguins to within two by converting a Max Talbot feed at 14:53 of the third, Maxim Lapierre scored into an empty net with 20.8 seconds left in regulation to close out the scoring.

And to bring the Penguins' stretch of four games in six nights to a wholly unsatisfying conclusion. One that few people would have envisioned 20 minutes into the game.

"We were very happy with our first period," Christensen said. "Who could foresee the collapse?"

Probably not even the guy who saw Wayne Gretzky in the Penguins' lineup.