The Montreal Canadiens clinched an Eastern Conference playoff spot despite losing 4-3 Saturday night on Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf's overtime goal.
Phaneuf netted the winning goal at 3:06, but the Canadiens had locked up their place in the playoffs once the game was pushed to overtime.
Phaneuf scored for the second straight game to give Toronto the win in a game it never led. He notched his first goal with the Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
The Canadiens, who failed to hold three one-goal leads, will be the No. 7 or No. 8 seed in the East. That will be determined by Sunday's game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Rangers.
Montreal's loss secured the sixth seed for the Boston Bruins.
Christian Hanson scored his first two goals of the season for Toronto. His second was a short-handed tally in the third that got the Maple Leafs even at 3.
Hanson, who had one goal in his previous 35 games, put a backhander past goalie Jaroslav Halak and inside the right post at 3:32. He scored his first goal in 31 games to tie it 1-1 midway through the opening period.
The Maple Leafs made it 2-2 when Viktor Stalberg scored his ninth goal 11:55 into the second.
Andrei Markov had a goal and two assists. His second helper, on Marc-Andre Bergeron's goal late in the second, put Montreal in front 3-2.
Markov opened the scoring with his sixth goal 6:14 in when his backhander from the left edge of the crease went in off the right skate of former teammate Mikhail Grabovski.
Brian Gionta scored his team-leading 28th goal on a power play at 16:17 to restore the Canadiens' one-goal lead at 2-1.
Markov got his third point of the game when he fed Scott Gomez's faceoff win to Bergeron, who drove a one-timer past Jean-Sebastien Giguere to give the Canadiens' their third lead 18:23 into the second.
Montreal came close to winning in overtime when Mike Cammalleri put a backhander off the right post. Benoit Pouliot fired a slap shot off the right corner of the net moments later.
NOTES: Veteran referee Dan Marouelli worked his final regular-season game. ... C Tim Brent made his Maple Leafs debut. Recalled from the Toronto Marlies of the AHL earlier Saturday, Brent had one goal in 18 previous NHL games with Anaheim, Pittsburgh and Chicago.
