MONTREAL — P.K. Subban says there’s no worse feeling than sitting in the penalty box when the opposition scores the winning goal.

That was the situation Tuesday night in overtime when Subban had a front-row seat as Steve Ott banged home a rebound to give the Buffalo Sabres a 3-2 win over the Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

Subban’s reaction to the high-sticking call on Mark Pysyk seemed to suggest that the Canadiens’ defenceman was the victim of a bad call, but Canadiens coach Michel Therrien wasn’t about to let Subban off the hook.

“It was a bad penalty, especially with the effort the guys had in the second and third periods,” said Therrien. “We’re going to take care of that so that it doesn’t happen again.”

The Canadiens put themselves behind the eight-ball twice after Colby Armstrong tied the game with 3:51 remaining in regulation time. Max Pacioretty, who scored the Canadiens’ first goal at 7:04 of the third period, took a goaltender interference penalty at 17:29. The Canadiens managed to kill that one and they came within a second of letting Subban off the hook when Ott scored on the rebound of a Jordan Leopold shot.

The seeds of the defeat were sowed in the first period when the Canadiens fell behind 2-0.

“We went through the motions in the first period; we weren’t at our best, that’s for sure,” said Therrien. “We worked very hard to make a comeback. We talked between the first and second periods that we were missing the net way too much. We’re a team that likes to get the puck to the net.”

The Canadiens did outshoot the visitors 34-21 and Buffalo goaltender Jhonas Enroth played a strong game for his third win over the Canadiens in as many starts. The saves included one in the dying minutes when Brian Gionta redirected a pass.

“I thought for sure it was in but he came across and made a good save,” said Gionta.

But it was the shots that didn’t get to the net that had the Canadiens shaking their heads. The Sabres blocked 23 shots and another 24 shots were either high or wide of the target.

“When you get behind by two goals, it’s tough to win games,” said Gionta. “Enroth played good, but we didn’t make it tough on him.”

“You can’t score if you don’t hit the net,” said rookie Brendan Gallagher, who launched the Canadiens’ comeback by setting up Pacioretty for Montreal’s first goal. “As a line, we talked about staying focused. (Enroth) made some pretty good saves at the end. You want to give him credit, but it’s more on us to score more.”

Armstrong salvaged a point with his second goal in as many games and said he wasn’t surprised to find himself open in front of the Buffalo goal.

“There were three guys in the corner and (Galchenyuk) made a good play to get the puck to me,” said Armstrong. “I knew I had time to go to my backhand. The goalie went down and I was able to swing the puck to the far side of the net. It was a good feeling, especially to tie it up and the reaction from my teammates was great.”

Lars Eller picked up the second assist on the goal and Armstrong praised his new linemate.

“It seems he’s got the game on his stick at all times,” said Armstrong. “He set me up short-handed for a one-timer and (Enroth) just got a leg on it.”

While Therrien would have preferred to come away with two points, he summed up the evening’s work by saying: “The effort was there and I’m satisfied.”

phickey@montrealgazette.com