Ian Barrett, Associated Press Ronald Petrovicky, left, checks Montreal's Janne Niinimaa. Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Penguins Notebook: Crosby gives a French 'shout out'

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens spent the first 25 or so minutes of the afternoon rifling through the NHL rulebook, looking for violations they really, really liked.

They never did choose a favorite, though, and ended up settling for something of a short-handed sampler.

But when they weren't trying to self-destruct by giving the Penguins the first six power plays of the game, the Canadiens were playing with the desperation of a team that sensed -- no, that knew -- its season was in danger of spiraling out of control.

Which Montreal managed to avoid, barely, with a 4-3 overtime victory against the Penguins at the Bell Center yesterday.

Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau has blistered his players for their lethargic work during a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders Saturday and, in addition to sitting forwards Sergei Samsonov and Alexander Perezhogin, reconfigured most of his forward lines for the game against the Penguins.

One didn't have to be fluent in either of Canada's official languages to grasp the message he was sending.

Ian Barrett, Associated Press Montreal's Sheldon Souray, right, sends Mark Recchi tumbling over Canadiens teammate Craig Rivet yesterday afternoon in Montreal. Click photo for larger image.

"They're pro athletes," Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton said. "They're going to respond. We knew they were going to be desperate, and ready to play."

Although the Penguins' six-game winning streak ended, their run of getting at least one point has reached 10 games (8-0-2). They've moved into sole possession of sixth place in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of Tampa Bay, on which they have two games in hand.

The Penguins secured their point at 17:26 of the third period, when Michel Ouellet steered a Ryan Whitney pass behind Canadiens goalie David Aebischer to make the score 3-3.

Ouellet's goal was the third the Penguins got in eight power plays. That's a nice day's work, but Montreal was even more efficient with the man-advantage, going 2 for 2.

None of Montreal's eight minors were particularly malicious, and there was no carryover from the crushing check Penguins right winger Colby Armstrong put on Canadiens captain Saku Koivu in the Penguins' 5-4 shootout victory at Mellon Arena Thursday.

"They made some comments after the game that they were waiting for us," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "We were there, and we played. For a young team, we showed character."

The game ended not because of an extraordinary effort by a Montreal player, but because Penguins center Sidney Crosby had taken it upon himself to try to make a play that would decide the outcome.

Which he did.

Just not the way he planned.

Crosby, a checker all but stitched to the back of his sweater, had swooped around the Montreal end while carrying the puck, looking for an opening that would give him -- or at least, a shot -- a clear path to Aebischer.

But as Crosby arced into the right circle, Canadiens forward Tomas Plekanec swatted the puck away from him, triggering a two-on-one break that ended with Montreal defenseman Sheldon Souray lashing a shot past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury from the right dot at 2:01 of overtime.

"When you make a move that high in the zone, it could be trouble," Crosby said. "If you lose it there ... that's a bad area to lose the puck. I have to learn from that one."

Souray's winner was the final entry in an afternoon of decidedly mixed results for Crosby. He assisted on the Penguins' first two goals to run his league-leading points total to 84, but also took abuse not only from the Canadiens, but their fans.

Montreal defenseman Francois Bouillon dropped Crosby with an inadvertent high stick to the face just under seven minutes into the third period, which led to a chant of "faker" from many in the crowd of 21,273 and an exchange of verbal hostilities with Canadiens winger Aaron Downey.

"He told me not to go down," Crosby said. "I said, 'If you get a stick in the face, we'll see how tough you are.' "

Whether the non-call on Boullion affected the outcome is impossible to say. Disappointing as the loss was for the Penguins, however, they hardly saw it as disastrous.

"It was a good week for us," Therrien said. "That was our fourth game in six days. That was a demanding schedule, and we picked up seven points out of eight. That's not bad."