MONTREAL (AP) -- Turner Stevenson made his third goal of the season count.

Stevenson's tie-breaking goal midway through the third period lifted the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.

	Montreal goalie Jeff Hackett takes Ottawa's Andreas Dackell into the boards.

The victory snapped a two-game losing skid and beat Ottawa for the first time in four tries this season.

"I think we caught them a little on their heels early," Stevenson said. "We got the lead early and that was important against them. I think they become a different team when they get behind because they can't really play the trap. They have to open up."

Patrick Poulin, Sergei Zholtok, Patrice Brisebois and Benoit Brunet also scored for Montreal.

Marian Hossa, Radek Bonk, Daniel Alfredsson and Vaclav Prospal scored for Ottawa.

Stevenson scored at 7:23 after Ottawa goalie Patrick Lalime made the initial save on Trevor Linden's low shot.

"We made a lot of turnovers and as a result, lots of goals were scored," Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. "We kept turning the puck over and giving them gifts. Sure we played twice in two nights, but that's no excuse. It's especially frustrating after we came back."

Brunet gave Montreal a 4-3 lead in the third after taking Stevenson's pass before Prospal beat Jeff Hackett with a rising wrist shot at 6:53 to tie it 4-4.

After the goal, Prospal, who got into trouble earlier in the season when he called Brisebois a "frog" during a game, made a gesture toward the Canadiens bench.

"Maybe he did it in the heat of the moment, but it fired us up," Canadiens forward Shayne Corson said. "We wanted to win that much more and throw it back in his face."

Canadiens defenseman Vladimir Malakhov was booed heavily by the crowd when he stepped on the ice two minutes into the game.

Malakhov missed the first 53 games of the season with a knee injury. Malakhov had been suspended without pay after he admitted to skiing during the All-Star break.

"I knew it was going to be a tough night. I had ear plugs on," said Malakhov, who turned some of those boos into cheers when he sent Colin Forbes over the boards in the second.

The Canadiens, who lead the league in man-games lost to injury, lost four more players. Juha Lind left in the second period with a strained hip flexor, while Karl Dykhuis suffered a wrist injury. Both Brunet and Eric Weinrich needed stitches. Brunet took a puck in the eye, and Weinrich had a puck hit his ear.

"It's typical of our season," Canadiens coach Alain Vigneault said.

Poulin and Zholtok scored in a 66-second span late in the first to give Montreal a 2-0 lead.

Bonk and Brisebois traded power-play goals early in the second.

Dainius Zubrus had two assists for Montreal, and has 10 points in his last 10 games.

Hossa has five points in his last four games, while Bonk and Alfredsson have five in their last five games.