This is a corrected version of the story.

Habs' Carey Price makes a save on Capitals' David Steckel during first period last night. Caps won 4-3 in a shootout.

Photograph by : JOHN MAHONEY, GAZETTE

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Roman Hamrlik, the iron man of the Canadiens' defence, has seen it all before.

The Habs squandered a valuable point last night when they lost a 4-3 shootout to the Washington Capitals.

Hamrlik said the Canadiens can blame the loss on two recurring problems - a slow start and an untimely penalty.

"We can say it over and over again, the first 20 minutes we were not ready," Hamrlik said. "And against this team, it's not easy to come back." On this night, the Canadiens did come back, rallying from a 2-0 first-period deficit and taking a 3-2 lead in the third because, in Hamrlik's words, "We picked it up and played with desperation." But the Habs' hopes of a victory evaporated when Paul Mara was called for high-sticking Brooks Laich in front of the net at 19:44 of the third period, and the Capitals tied the game four seconds later when Eric Fehr scored his second goal of the night.

"We have to stay out of the box," Hamrlik said. "We can't take stupid penalties, especially against teams like this. We let them tie the game, and when it gets into a shootout, it's 50-50." The Canadiens wasted a strong defensive effort.

While superstar Alex Ovechkin had a goal and an assist, the Habs did a good job of containing one of the highest-scoring teams in the league. Ovechkin had eight shots on goal, but netminder Carey Price made at least three big stops on him. The Habs also blocked eight of his shots.

"He scored a hell of a goal," Hamrlik said.

"You have to watch him (and) we did a pretty good job. It's frustrating. We have the lead and you want to play tough, but you don't want to play stupid." Hamrlik had five blocks while defence partner Jaroslav Spacek blocked six shots and scored one of Montreal's two power-play goals. The Canadiens have struggled with the extra man this season, but Spacek was encouraged by the 2-for-4 power-play performance.

"Today, I think my shot hit something; I don't think it went straight through, but it's good we have guys coming to the net," he said. "We're getting some traffic there. We need that presence in front of the net. If the goalie can see the puck, we can't score." Like most of his teammates, Spacek was frustrated over losing a point.

"It's tough to give up points like this. I hope we won't miss them at the end of the season." The overtime loss left the Canadiens in 12th place in the Eastern Conference standings, but they are only one point shy of the eighth-place Philadelphia Flyers, who have two games in hand.

Spacek had missed the two previous games with a bruised foot, the result of blocking a shot two weeks ago in Phoenix. But he said he didn't think twice about throwing his body in front of a moving puck.

"That's my job. If I'm not 100 per cent, I wouldn't go out there." he said.

Spacek was wearing a plastic guard over his skates and said it offered the necessary protection.

"I took one shot where I was hit before and I didn't feel it," he said. "I don't know if you can make them mandatory, but they're valuable for defencemen and I'll wear it the rest of my career." Head coach Jacques Martin tried to put the best light on the loss when he said he was encouraged by the way his team played for 59 minutes and 40 seconds.

"We have to stop taking bad penalties, but we had a good effort considering all the people we're missing, and we have to build on the positives," Martin said.

First Star: Eric Fehr scored two goals for the Capitals, including the tying goal with 11.4 seconds remaining in regulation time.

Second Star: Jaroslav Spacek returned from an injury and had a strong game with a goal, an assist and six blocked shots.

Third Star: Alex Ovechkin scored a goal and added an assist and fired a game-high eight shots on goal.

Key Number: 18 The number of shot Alex Ovechkin took. He had eight on goal,eight were blocked and two missed the net.

phickey@thegazette.canwest.com

The original version of the story incorrectly stated that Eric Fehr scored two goals for the Canadiens. The Gazette regrets the error.