Canadiens, Price are no longer perfect at home

It took two broken sticks and a bad deflection to prevent Carey Price from tying an 89-year-old franchise record.

Florida's Aaron Ekblad scored a fluke goal in overtime as the Panthers beat the Canadiens 4-3 on Tuesday night to deny Price a bit of Montreal history.

Price was looking for his 11th win in a row, which would have matched George Hainsworth's 1927 record for a single-season winning streak by a Habs goaltender.

Instead, some bad luck in overtime handed Montreal its first home loss of the season after starting the year 10-0-0 at the Bell Centre.

In the extra period, Alex Galchenyuk broke his stick and then sprinted to the Montreal bench to be replaced. With Florida playing 3-on-2 hockey in Galchenyuk's absence, Ekblad shattered his own stick on a slapshot from in close. The slow-rolling puck, which wasn't initially headed for goal, went off defenceman Nathan Beaulieu's skate and into the net.

'Funny things happen in overtime'

"What can you do," asked Beaulieu rhetorically. "It was a lucky one. The hockey gods didn't want us to win tonight. Funny things happen in overtime. We can't put a lot of pressure on ourselves for that.

"The bounces weren't there."

Added Price, who had not lost a game since Oct. 29, 2015: "Ultimately I just needed to make a couple of more saves there," he said. "It would have been nice to have [the record]. But it's over now. Time to move on."

The Panthers (8-7-1) also got a good bounce on their third goal, when Denis Malgin's shot took a strange deflection off Jeff Petry's leg to make it 3-2.

Price, who made 20 saves for Montreal (13-2-2), allowed more than two goals in a game for just the second time this season.

The loss was Montreal's first when scoring the first goal of the game (12-0-1).

"It was a funny night," said Panthers coach Gerard Gallant. "There were some funny goals. We just talk about putting pucks to the net and getting people going there. Sometimes you get the lucky breaks and the lucky bounces. To get four by Carey is not easy to do."

After Max Pacioretty opened the scoring for Montreal on the power play at 2:12 of the first, Alex Petrovic got the ball rolling for the Panthers less than three minutes later following a bad giveaway by Phillip Danault.

Radulov misses game due to illness

Rookie defenceman Michael Matheson, a Montreal native, was playing his first-ever game at Bell Centre.

Matheson, who was drafted by the Panthers in the first round in 2012, picked up an assist on Florida's second goal. Pinned behind Montreal's net, the 22-year-old fed Kyle Rau in the slot with a clever no-look, between-the-legs pass to make it 2-1 for the visitors.

"That was a bit of a guess," admitted Matheson. "I felt three or four guys around me, so I thought someone has to be open. I knew we were changing, so I just tried to apply some pressure. I ended up keeping the puck down low for a little bit. I was just trying to buy some time."

With Brian Flynn still out of the lineup with an upper-body injury, Desharnais got the start on the wing next to Tomas Plekanec. Desharnais finished with a goal and an assist — his first point in his last 12 games.

Down 3-2 to start the third period, Paul Byron scored his team-leading sixth goal of the year to level the score. After Roberto Luongo made an initial save on Brendan Gallagher from a tight angle, the puck squeaked through his pads and Byron was there for the tap-in.

With an assist on the goal, Galchenyuk extended his point streak to six games.

Alexander Radulov missed the game due to illness. That meant winger Chris Terry made his season debut for the Habs.