Scottie Upshall scored 5:02 into the third period Monday as the Florida Panthers downed Montreal 2-1 to stretch the Canadiens' winless run to six games.
Upshall was in front of the net to tip a harmless looking point shot in off the post past backup goaltender Peter Budaj, who made his first start in goal for Montreal.
Tomas Fleischmann also scored for Florida (5-3-0), which has won two in a row.
Off-season signing Erik Cole scored his first goal for Montreal (1-5-2), who are 0-4-2 in their last six and who remain winless (0-3-2) at home.
Montreal outshot the Panthers 41-31, but rangy goaltender Jacob Markstrom made several sterling saves. He was particularly strong during a first-period Montreal power play, and late in the game with the Bell centre crowd booing and with Montreal pressing desperately for the equalizer.
The Canadiens' injury woes may have deepened as winger Max Pacioretty left in the second period with an undisclosed ailment.
Coach Jacques Martin had taken heat for not using Cole on the power play, but had him out on the second unit for the first chance of the night and it worked as he crowded the net and tipped in a Raphael Diaz point shot 3:08 into the game.
A second Canadiens power play produced a succession of chances, but Markstrom made glittering saves on Michael Cammalleri and Mathieu Darche.
Moments later, the Panthers got a strange one on a man advantage. The puck slipped off Cammalleri's stick and was lying in a thicket of legs in the crease when Fleischmann poked it in off a skate to tie the game at 15:59
Cole scored only the third power play goal for Montreal in 31 chances this season, and their first in a 5-on-4 situation. The others were a 5-on-3 and a 4-on-3.
The Panthers opened a three-game road trip that takes them to Ottawa on Thursday and Buffalo on Saturday. Montreal remains at home to face Philadelphia on Wednesday before back-to-back games with Boston.
Petteri Nokelainen, acquired Sunday in a deal with Phoenix, played his first game for Montreal and made a key clearing play after two teammates broke sticks in their own zone. Call-up Mike Blunden also played his first game.
Notes: With Jaroslav Spacek's return from a rib injury, Alexei Emelin sat out for Montreal. . . Marco Sturm, pick up Saturday in the deal that sent David Booth to Vancouver, made his Panthers debut. Mikael Samuelsson remains in Vancouver for treatment on an injury. . . Mike Santorelli returned for Florida, bumping Ryan Carter from the lineup.
