DETROIT (AP) -- Martin Lapointe misfired on too many other good scoring chances lately to fail again with the game on the line.

Lapointe's goal with 14.4 seconds remaining in overtime gave the Detroit Red Wings a wild 6-5 victory over Montreal on Sunday night.

The Canadiens, once down 4-1, twice rallied into third-period ties, the last on Craig Darby's goal with 1:02 remaining.

But Lapointe broke loose to beat Montreal goalie Jeff Hackett on a lead pass from Nicklas Lidstrom, who had a goal and two assists.

"It was a nice pass from Nick and (Hackett) gave me a whole side to shoot at, so I had to take it," Lapointe said.

Lapointe didn't score on two excellent earlier chances, including a second-period breakaway that Hackett got with his pad. Lapointe also hit the goal post in the waning seconds of overtime Saturday during Detroit's scoreless tie at St. Louis.

Montreal, which has lost two straight, is in a ninth-place tie with Buffalo, one point behind Carolina for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot. All have three games remaining.

"The main thing is it's still in our hands," Montreal's Shane Corson said. "We still have a heartbeat. That's the bottom line."

Added Canadiens coach Alain Vigneault: "We're still alive. It's going to be a tough fight down to the end. It's going to be a fun week of hockey."

Detroit is three points behind St. Louis in the race for both the Central Division title and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. The Red Wings have two games left and the Blues three.

Lidstrom's goal was his 20th of the season, and his 35 points since the All-Star break are the most in the NHL.

"I don't know why I'm scoring more points now than the first half of the year. but the puck's been going in for me and I've scored a lot of goals on the power play as well, and that's been helping out," Lidstrom said.

Detroit took a 5-4 lead when Yuri Butsayev deflected a shot by Larry Murphy past Hackett with 2:59 left in the third.

But Darby scored in a furious scramble in front of Detroit goalie Chris Osgood just seconds after the Canadiens pulled Hackett for an extra attacker.

"I don't think we meant to do that, but that's what happened out there," Lidstrom said. "They were desperate. We couldn't stop them, but we were able to get the win in overtime."

Turner Stevenson scored one of Montreal's three third-period goals and assisted on another by Martin Rucinsky. Patrice Brisebois and Brian Savage also scored for the Canadiens.

"We play well when we're down. Somehow we have to change that," Savage said. "But we come out of Detroit with a point. We're not going to complain about that."

Brendan Shanahan scored his 40th goal, Sergei Fedorov had a goal and an assist and Steve Duchesne also scored for Detroit.

Osgood had 31 saves. Hackett, 1-12-1 against Detroit in his career, stopped 39 shots.

"Their backs were against the wall and they needed some points," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. "They charged in and things happened."

Brisebois scored just 27 seconds into the game when he converted a return pass from Corson to end a 3-on-1 break.

But the Red Wings answered with four straight goals.

Shanahan scored his 40th at 6:58. He was skating into the Montreal zone after a shift change and intercepted a clearing attempt by Brisebois before wristing a shot past Hackett.

Duchesne put Detroit ahead when he shot in Stacy Roest's rebound at 12:01, and Lidstrom made it 3-1 just 2:23 later with a short-handed goal.

The teams traded second-period goals. Fedorov scored on a breakaway 32 seconds in and Savage scored on a power play with 1:41 left when he took a corner pass from Corson and shot it over Osgood's stick.