MONTREAL — The Canadiens' offence started  — and finished — with Lars Eller as Montreal squeaked past the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in a shootout Wednesday night at the Bell Centre.

"Lars Eller was phenomenal," said coach Michel Therrien. "Lars skates well, he's improving. He's having fun. I really like the way those guys are playing together. I'm glad to see (Gabriel) Dumont is getting a chance."

What is basically a makeshift line with Dumont joining Eller and Alex Galchenyuk proved to be the best line on the ice Wednesday night. Dumont and Eller combined to open the scoring with the Canadiens' only even-strength goal and Galchenyuk and Eller scored in the shootout to ensure the Canadiens' fourth consecutive win.

There have been two important factors in Eller's development. The first was a positive response to being banished to the press box early in the season and the second has been Therrien's decision to find a spot for Eller at centre, which is his natural position.

"I'm playing with a lot more confidence," said Eller. That's reflected not only in his scoring — he has four goals and 11 assists — but also in his faceoff success which is hovering around 50 per cent. Eller said his improvement in that area is a combination of hard work and experience. He won nine of his 16 faceoffs Wednesday.

This was game which could — and should — have been decided in a regulation time. It wasn't because Carey Price surrendered a softie to Patrick Wiercioch in the third period, and because Galchenyuk was a shade off target with a shot late in regulation time.

"I should have had that one," Price said of the Wiercioch goal. "He threw me off when he cut to the middle and I didn't get down quick enough."

Therrien found room in the lineup when Brandon Prust went down with a shoulder injury last week. The coach could have taken credit for a brilliant strategic move in putting Dumont with Galchenyuk and Eller, but he said that they are together because he didn't want to mess with his other three lines.

Dumont, who has been the hardest-working, if not the best, forward in Hamilton since the lockout ended, set the Canadiens' opening goal in motion when he tried a wraparound against Robin Lehner. The Ottawa goalie made the save but left a fat rebound for Eller.

The vote for grittiest performance of the night once again went to rookie Brendan Gallagher, who was in front of the net to tip Max Pacioretty's shot for his eighth goal of the season. The 5-foot-8 Gallagher gets knocked down a lot, but he says that's part of the fun.

"That's my game," said Gallagher. "I get hit a lot but the pain doesn't last for long."

Michael Ryder missed a chunk of the second period with some sort of injury but he returned for the third and Therrien danced around the subject of whether there was any reason for concern.

Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban continued to pile up huge minutes. Subban, who had a goal and an assist to go along with seven giveaways, was on the ice for 30:52 and Markov clocked 30:22. They played a total of 11:37 on the power play while Francis Bouillon, Josh Gorges and Alexei Emelin totaled less than two minutes.

There was one roster move after the game, with the Canadiens announcing that defenceman Greg Pateryn was being returned to Hamilton after three games. Pateryn was on the ice for only 6:59.

The move is probably a prelude to another move. The Canadiens have only six healthy defencemen and may be preparing to make a trade. It could also means that Raphael Diaz is close to returning from a concussion.

phickey@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: @zababes1