Canadiens' Marty St. Louis looks on the bright side after OT shutout loss to Maple Leafs

The Montreal Canadiens lost 1-0 in overtime to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. Head coach Martin St. Louis was disappointed with the result but happy with the effort. He said the team played with heart and earned an important point.

"I'm really proud of the way the guys played. It's a big point for our group, and not just the way we got the point," St. Louis said via TSN.

The Canadiens played back-to-back games after losing 5-2 to Ottawa on Friday. They had a chance to clinch a playoff spot with a win. Instead, they will now wait for Sunday’s game between Columbus and Washington. A Blue Jackets loss in any form would send Montreal to the playoffs.

Montreal has 88 points and sits five ahead of Columbus. The Canadiens have two games left. Columbus has three. Montreal’s next game is Monday at home against the Chicago Blackhawks.

St. Louis said he was proud of his players. He praised their compete level and the way they battled.

“We got to fight a little bit,” he said. “Played with a lot of heart.”

Captain Nick Suzuki said the team believed they could reach this point.

“Most people didn’t see that,” he added. “It’s nice to still be in the hunt.”

The Maple Leafs outshot Montreal 35-15, but the Canadiens pushed hard. They directed 57 pucks toward Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz. Mitch Marner scored the only goal in overtime.

Kaiden Guhle also fought Max Domi after landing hits on two Toronto players. Domi received an extra penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Leafs dressed only 17 skaters due to injuries and salary cap limits. Jake McCabe, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and David Kampf were unavailable.

Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube discussed his plans after win over Canadiens

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said the team planned to play tight defense. Speaking to the media after the game, he said that they followed the plan well.

"We talked about just playing real good defense, tight and I thought our team did that," Berube said, via NHL.com. "Helped our defense out. We didn’t spend much time in our defensive zone, nothing off the rush and the forwards did real good job of getting above people tonight and our defense were really good I thought."

Berube also talked about playing with only five defensemen. He said they had discussed this earlier in the day, and the team avoided long shifts in their zone. Berube's approach helped in keeping the defense fresh. Now they are leading the season series against the Canadiens 3-1.