The skinny: The special teams came up short for the Canadiens in the third period as the Carolina Hurricanes got a shorthanded goal from Eric Staal and a power-play strike from Jamie McBain to defeat the Canadiens 5-3 Monday night at the Bell Centre.

The Canadiens had taken a 3-2 lead on second-period goals by Tomas Plekanec, Erik Cole and David Desharnais. Staal also scored an empty-netter, while Jiri Tlusty and Jaroslav Spacek scored the other Carolina goals.

Missed opportunity: The loss snapped the Canadiens' four-game win streak and left them seven points behind eighth-place Toronto. They also missed an opportunity to close ground on ninth-place Washington. The Capitals lost to San Jose and remain six points up on Montreal.

six points up on Montreal. Feel the power: The Canadiens' power play came into the game ranked 29th in the NHL, but it produced two goals in the second period as the Canadiens came back from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead. Cole tied the game at 2-2 when he came off the half wall and beat Ward with a 20-footer to the glove side at 15: 37. Desharnais gave Montreal its first lead when he scored off a rebound at 17: 53. P.K. Subban's shot from the point bounced out of Ward's glove and Desharnais used some nifty stick-handling to score his 11th of the season.

Plucky Pleky: Tomas Plekanec ignited the Canadiens' comeback when he scored at 11: 53 of the second period.

Chris Campoli sent Plekanec on a 2-on-1 break with Rene Bourque. Plekanec used Bourque as a decoy and tucked a wrist shot inside the post on Ward's glove side. Plekanec has two goals and four assists in the past five games.

The merry prankster: Spacek was back at the Bell Centre for the first time since he was traded for Tomas Kaberle and, while he wasn't able to pull any practical jokes on his former teammates, he was able to fool them when he went backdoor to take a pass from Jeff Skinner. The result was a power-play goal to give Carolina a 2-0 lead at 9: 21 of the second period.

The other guy: Kaberle had an assist on Cole's power-play goal, but he lived up to his reputation as a defensive liability when Staal went around him for a shorthanded goal to draw Carolina even at 3-3 early in the third period.

Bad timing: Carolina's Tuomo Ruutu left the game after the first period with an upperbody injury. That could create problems for GM Jim Rutherford because Ruutu is a physical forward who is expected to be one of the sought-after players at the trade deadline.