The Montreal Canadiens, who outplayed the Buffalo Sabres for 57 minutes on Wednesday night, managed to salvage a point and take sole possession of sixth place in the Eastern Conference, but it was at great expense. As one of the hottest teams since the Olympic break, Montreal really folded up last night. After taking a 2-0 lead, thanks to a pair from Andrei Kostitsyn, Buffalo’s late pressure resulted in the equalizing goals coming with 1:59 and then :48 left in the game. They went on to win in a shootout.

An extra-time penalty to Andrei Markov didn’t help things, as Montreal played on their heels for the first half of the overtime period. Carey Price did his best Ryan Miller impression and kept the Canadiens in the game, but all of the momentum was on Buffalo’s side. Tim Connolly and Steve Montador added the late Buffalo goals to send the game to overtime, and the feeling in HSBC Arena was clearly that the Canadiens had already rolled over and conceded defeat.

If the playoffs were to begin today, Montreal would face Buffalo in the first round, and Buffalo proved last night that they can beat Montreal in a three-minute game. American Olympic netminder Miller kept the Sabres in the game throughout regulation then shut the door completely and let his teammates take over. The Canadiens panicked in the final minutes, and that’s not a good sign. Yes the Canadiens are playing well overall, but to lose to a division rival like they did is not only embarrassing, it’s a major cause for concern.

The Sabres are now 4-0-1 against Montreal; enough wins to take a playoff round. They’ll meet for the final time in the regular season on Apr. 3 in Montreal. Unless the Canadiens want to find themselves in a real tough spot, they’ll have to pick themselves up quickly and continue rolling, while the Sabres continue to run away in the Northeast Division and are just a point behind Pittsburgh for second overall in the East. The only thing that’s certain at this point is that there’s still a lot of hockey left to play in 2010.