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Andrei Kostitsyn scored in the fifth round of a shootout to give the Montreal Canadiens a 5-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

Kostitsyn was the only Canadien to score on Devan Dubnyk, who got most of the shot but saw it trickle into the net. Dubnyk just missed recording his first NHL win and is now 0-7-2 in his rookie season.

Jaroslav Halak stopped all five Edmonton shooters, although Gilbert Brule hit a goalpost.

Tomas Plekanec scored his 20th of the season, to give him four straight 20-goal campaigns, while Brian Gionta, Travis Moen and Sergei Kostitsyn also scored for Montreal (34-29-6), which has won five of six games since the Olympic break.

Robert Nilsson, Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano and Shawn Horcoff scored for Edmonton (21-39-7), who have the league’s worst road record at 8-21-3.

The Oilers, already riddled with injuries, may have lost another player as Ryan Whitney left the game with two minutes left in the second period after taking an Andrei Markov shot off a knee. He limped to the bench and did not return for the third period.

Cogliano ties it

Edmonton went into the third period down 3-2, but Cogliano scored after only 32 seconds, poking the puck in after Dustin Penner took it to the net and tied up two defenders. It was Cogliano’s first goal in 20 games.

Edmonton then killed off a two-man Montreal advantage for 1:18, but Sergei Kostitsyn place Montreal ahead when he won a battle for the puck in the corner, skated out and scored with a wrist shot at 8:05.

Horcoff tied it again only 1:14 later when his long shot eluded Halak’s glove.

Goals came thick and quick in the first four minutes of a sloppy opening period.

Plekanec was sent in alone and beat Dubnyk on Montreal’s second shot of the game at 1:20, but then Nilsson scored on Edmonton’s first shot on Halak as he picked the top corner on the near side with a wrist shot at 2:22.

Gagner beat Halak, again top corner-near side, from a tight angle on a power play at 3:43 on the Oilers’ third shot.

It took Gionta until the 9:45 mark to tie it as he tipped an Andrei Markov shot over Dubnyk.

Sergei Kostitsyn skated the puck to the net and Moen banged it in 15:25 into the second frame. It was the first goal in 33 games since Dec. 16 for the checking winger.

Canadiens coach Jacques Martin made a curious go, having Benoit Pouliot and Glen Metropolit switch units on the power play. Montreal has the league’s second-best power play, but went 0-for-7 on Thursday.

Phil Kessel took a brilliant pass from Tyler Bozak and scored at 3:33 of overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs place a dent in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s playoff hopes with a 4-3 victory Thursday night.

With the teams trading chances during an entertaining extra session, Bozak intercepted a pass and broke in on a 2-on-1, deked around Lightning forward Vincent Lecavalier and slipped the puck to an open Kessel, who easily beat a sprawling Mike Smith.

Bozak also scored in regulation, while fellow rookie Viktor Stahlberg added a pair as the Maple Leafs (22-33-12) won for the third time in four games on the backs of their youth.

Luca Caputi, another freshman, added two assists.

Steven Stamkos, extending his points streak to 18 games with his 42nd goal of the season, Kurtis Foster and Steve Downie answered for the Lightning (27-27-11), who lost for the seventh time in eight games.

Tampa Bay — fighting for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference with Montreal, Boston, the Rangers and Atlanta — struggled to contain the Leafs’ kids all night and eventually paid for it.

Bozak had place the Leafs ahead 3-2 just 3:37 into the third when he picked up a loose puck to Smith’s right and fired it over the prone goalie.

But for the second time in the game, Toronto’s lead was shortlived.

Downie fired home a rebound past Jean-Sebastien Giguere just 1:13 later, setting up the exciting end.

A dull opening frame in which Stamkos’s late power-play goal was the only highlight gave way to a far more entertaining second that finished with the teams locked up 2-2.

Stahlberg tied things up 1-1 at 9:29 when he took a Caputi chip pass out of the Leafs end, broke in on a 2-on-1 and ripped a shot off Smith’s glove and in.

The Maple Leafs took the lead about seven minutes later on a weak shot, as Stahlberg won a battle for the puck behind the goal, skated out from the corner and swept the puck in past Smith from a terrible angle.

Undeterred by a second weak goal, the Lightning attacked relentlessly on the next shift and moments after Leafs defenceman Dion Phaneuf cleared the puck from the goal-line, Foster wired a loose puck in the high slot over a screened Giguere’s shoulder to tie it again.

The first real animosity in the game came moments later when Phaneuf and Downie traded a flurry of punches in a melee that brought in all their teammates. Phaneuf and Downie both served minors for roughing.

Stamkos opened the scoring at 18:17 of the first, taking a pass from Foster in the left faceoff dot and sending a laser beam over Giguere’s shoulder.

Fred Preston, 70, has died in a London, Ont., hospital after a shootout that left an OPP officer dead. (backyardstuff.ca)

Fred Preston, who was charged in the shootout death of an Ontario Provincial Police officer, has died, the province’s Special Investigations Unit confirmed late Thursday.

Preston, 70, had been in critical condition in London’s Victoria Hospital after being shot several times in a shootout on a rural road near the community of Seaforth in southwestern Ontario.

Relatives of Preston said he died in the evening after he was taken off life support.

Const. Vu Pham, 37, of the Ontario Provincial Police, was fatally shot Monday near Seaforth, Ont. (OPP/Canadian Press)

The confrontation killed Const. Vu Pham, a 15-year OPP veteran. Preston was charged with first-degree murder in his death. Pham died several hours after being flown to London’s Health Sciences Centre, with his wife and children at his side.

Thousands of police officers are expected to attend Pham’s funeral Friday in Wingham.

Preston was a former Ontario township council leader who was struggling with marital problems. The father of three grown daughters, he was the reeve of Joly Township on the western edge of Algonquin Park from the 1990s until 2003.

Sources said Preston’s wife left him last fall and went in with their youngest daughter in southwestern Ontario. Police believe Preston was on his way to see his wife when he was pulled over by the OPP.