NEWARK - Canadiens head coach Randy Cunneyworth had no doubt why the Canadiens dropped a 5-3 decision to the New Jersey Devils Thursday night.

It wasn’t because Carey Price let in a soft goal in the first period.

And it wasn’t, as Josh Gorges suggested, because the Devils got the bounces and the Canadiens may have sat back after taking a 3-1 lead.

And perish the thought that the Devils, who are sitting in a playoff spot a dozen points ahead of the Canadiens, may be a better team.

No, said Cunneyworth, it was all about what he called “lopsided” officiating.

“It’s tough enough playing a team straight up, but when you don’t get the calls, especially on the one that made the difference,” said Cunneyworth, who went on to say that Zach Parise was in a position to score the go-ahead goal because the referees missed a hooking call.

“(Erik) Cole was obviously hooked and could not battle to get the puck out of his zone. He was held up by (Ilya) Kovalchuk and that’s a little bit beyond comprehension for me.

“We were battling and working hard and I liked for the most part the effort and the desperation. The difference was the penalties. It’s hard to fight a good team when you’re down a man for as much time as we were,” he added.

Cunneyworth might have had a complaint about the calls that weren’t made and he was puzzled that Patrik Elias was only handed a minor for a boarding incident that knocked Michael Blunden out of the game late in the first period. But the penalties that were called were hardly lopsided. The Devils had four power plays and were up a man for 6:25 while Montreal had three power plays and had the advantage for 5:59.

“On a night like this, we thought we deserved a better outcome,” Cunneyworth said.

The non-call on the hooking penalty aside, the Canadiens could fall back on the bad bounces rationale

“You look at the game-winning goal,” Gorges said. “Davey (Desharnais) works like a bugger to get back and dives and it just happens to go off his stick. He did everything he could, but it goes right to (Parise) and then there’s nothing Pricey can do. He’s trying to make the first save and that leaves a wide-open net.”

“I thought in the second period, we sat back a little bit and took some penalties,” Gorges added. “They were able to build some momentum. They got the power-play goal. (Mathieu) Darche does a good job to tip it and then it goes off another guy in front. You can’t do much about those plays. And then we just sat back a little too much.”

The Canadiens are 11 points out of a playoff spot after losing their last two games and Max Pacioretty put the Canadiens’ situation is perspective when he channelled Yogi Berra and said: “I guess it’s never over ‘til it’s over, but these four points coming out of the break make the hole a little deeper. If we are going to make it, it’s a lot harder now.

“The dagger about it is that these two teams, Buffalo and New Jersey, are teams we’re competing with and it’s not just losing, but who we’re losing to,” Pacioretty said.

“I don’t think there was any defining moment,” Pacioretty said. “They got some momentum and then in the third period, they made better decisions with the puck and were able to get it out.”

For the record, the only penalty in the third period was to New Jersey’s David Clarkson.

phickey@montrealgazette.com