MONTREAL - The Montreal Canadiens booked a ticket to the NHL playoffs on Saturday night despite a 4-3 loss to the rival Toronto Maple Leafs on Dion Phaneuf's overtime goal.

The Canadiens (39-33-10) needed only one point to gain a playoff spot, but their final position in the Eastern Conference will depend on the results of a game Sunday between Philadelphia and the New York Rangers. Montreal reached the post-season for a third straight season.

Andrei Markov had a goal and two assists, Brian Gionta got his 28th to lead the Canadiens in goal-scoring and Marc-Andre Bergeron also had one for Montreal, which outshot Toronto 37-27 and hit two goalposts in overtime.

Christian Hanson scored his first two goals of the season, to give him three for his career, and Viktor Stalberg had one for Toronto (30-38-14), which finished last in the Eastern Conference. Hanson, who assisted on Phaneuf's winner, got his only other goal on April 7, 2009 against New Jersey.

His second of the game shorthanded 3:32 into the third period made it a 3-3 tie and set off competing chants for the rest of the game from rival fans among the Bell Centre crowd of 21,273 as Montreal pressed for the game-winner.

Hanson broke in on the left side and beat Jaroslav Halak with a backhander to force overtime.

Montreal scored first as Benoit Pouliot collected the rebound off his own shot behind the net and fed Markov, whose pass across the crease went in off Leaf Mikael Grabovski's skate at 6:14.

Toronto got it right back at 9:12, as Halak came out to play Grabovski's dump-in and was beaten to the puck by Hanson, who shot into the gaping net.

The Canadiens struggling power play awoke with Gionta's goal only 12 seconds into a man advantage at 16:17 when he converted a feed from Scott Gomez.

The Leafs did not get a lot of sustained pressure in the Montreal zone, but were opportunistic as Tyler Bozak won a race for the puck behind the net and fed unmarked Stalberg for a shot inside the post 11:55 into the second frame. It was Stalberg's fourth goal in the last six games.

Montreal went ahead again at 18:23 when Gomez won a faceoff and passed back to Markov, who slid the puck to Bergeron for a one-time blast that beat Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Halak made 24 saves for the Canadiens while Giguere stopped 34 of 37 shots for the Leafs.