The Montreal Canadiens' season was put on life support Monday.

Michael Ryder scored late in the second period to break a 2-2 tie against his former club as the Boston Bruins beat Montreal 4-2 to take a 3-0 stranglehold in their NHL Eastern Conference playoff series.

Cast aside by the Habs in the off-season, the Bonavista, N.L., native scored a goal that put Montreal on the brink of a four-game sweep and a long off-season.

"I just try to work hard and play my game," Ryder said, looking innocent as possible after his game-winner. "It was a big win for us.

"My goal was just a rebound goal and it ended up being the winner."

Boston can close out the best-of-seven series and move on to the second round with a win Wednesday in Game 4 at the Bell Centre.

Montreal coach and general manager Bob Gainey hinted that drastic measures may be taken for Game 4 and that injured veterans Andrei Markov and Robert Lang could return. Neither has played in the series.

Lang has been out since early February with a severed Achilles tendon and was not expected back until at least the second round of playoffs. Markov missed the final four games of the regular season with an undisclosed injury. Both have been skating of late, but not with their teammates.

"All our players are on skates now and we know what the game represents, so we will be re-evaluating everyone," said Gainey. "It's the worst situation and the best challenge."

Meanwhile, the Calgary Flames avoided a similar fate by beating the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 at home in Game 3 of their Western Conference playoff series.

Elsewhere in the NHL it was Washington 4 N.Y. Rangers 0.

At Montreal, Phil Kessel, Shawn Thornton and Chuck Kobasew, into an empty net, also scored for the Bruins, the top seed in the East.

Ryder was a healthy scratch in last year's playoffs under former Habs coach Guy Carbonneau as he slumped to 14 regular-season goals after scoring 30 in each of the previous two campaigns.

"I knew I could play," said Ryder. "I never lost it.

"It was just getting the opportunity again."

Ryder signed as a free agent with Boston last summer reuniting him with coach Claude Julien, who he played for in both junior and with the Canadiens before Julien was fired in 2006.

Ryder bounced back with a 26 regular-season goals for the Bruins.

"Good for him to come in here and showcase what he can do," said Julien. "I knew him, but it's not for the coach to tell an organization which guys to sign.

"But before last year, he scored 25 to 30 goals a year. We knew he could bounce back. And with our style of play, he seemed like a guy who could fit in."

Rookie defenceman Yannick Weber had a goal and an assist and Chris Higgins also scored for the injury-plagued Canadiens, who learned before the game they would be without veterans Alex Tanguay and Mathieu Schneider due to upper body injuries.

Boston was outskated by Montreal through the first half of the game before taking over midway through the second period and did not appear to miss suspended forward Milan Lucic.

For the first time in the series, Montreal scored first as Higgins broke down the left side and beat Bruins goalie Tim Thomas with wrist shot off his glove at 11:52.

But with 1:25 left in the first, Mike Komisarek's clearing attempt was intercepted at the blue-line by Dennis Wideman, whose shot toward the net went in off Kessel for his third of the series.

Two players scored their first NHL playoff goals early in the second frame, as Byron Bitz fought off Weber to feed Thornton in front for his first in 25 career post-season games at 3:36.

Less than two minutes later, Glen Metropolit won a draw off Marc Savard back to Weber, who scored in only his second playoff game and fifth career NHL contest.

After that goal, the Bruins took over and a string of three shots ended in Ryder's second of the series to give Boston the lead at 17:21.

After the game Gainey was blunt when assessing his team's plight down 0-3 in the series.

"We'd rather not be in this situation. We came in looking for a win and we didn't get one."