MONTREAL -- Stuck in a tailspin for the past six weeks, the Montreal Canadiens no longer find themselves in a playoff spot.

Held to a single goal for the third time in their past five games -- and two or fewer for the fourth time in that stretch, the Canadiens fell 4-1 to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre. It was Montreal's fifth straight loss, the second streak of its kind for the team in just over month.

That, combined with the New Jersey Devils' win, dropped the Canadiens out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

"The only way we're going to get out of this is by being positive, working hard, and trying to get different results through that process," Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said. "Obviously, yeah, we're frustrated. We want to be better, we want to win games. We just have to work hard every day and get out of this."

Right winger David Pastrnak recorded a goal and an assist to lift the Bruins (24-16-5), who have now won three straight for the first time since mid-December.

"It was about winning the hockey game," Boston coach Claude Julien said of his team potentially looking for payback after their Winter Classic loss. "They were a point behind us. If we didn't want to slide down and wanted to try and move up, we had to win this game. That was the most important thing."

Goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 38 shots for the Bruins while Mike Condon made 20 saves for Montreal (23-20-4).

Centers Max Talbot and Patrice Bergeron and left winger Brad Marchand also scored for Boston. Defenseman Mark Barberio connected for the Canadiens.

The Canadiens had the early chances, with a couple of opportunities on four shots before the Bruins registered their first shot on Condon four and a half minutes in.

But it was the visitors that struck first on a gaffe by Montreal defenseman Andrei Markov in the first period. Condon denied Talbot's five-hole attempt on a mini-breakaway. Markov picked up the puck after Condon lifted his left pad and went to pass it to an oncoming teammate, but it went right onto Talbot's stick and the veteran forward made no mistake with a shot from the right circle at 13:08.

Barberio brought the Bell Centre to life with his first of the season at 8:48 of the second. Center David Desharnais lobbed a pass from the corner to defenseman P.K. Subban in the high slot. Subban wasted little time in dishing off to Barberio in the right circle to tie the game, 1-1.

The Bruins took advantage of another defensive miscue to take the lead again at 16:49. Blue-liner Alexei Emelin collided with Condon to the right of the net and the Canadiens goaltender tried to recover to get over to the other side to an uncovered Bergeron, but the center brought Pastrnak's feed out from behind the net and slipped it past a diving Condon.

Pastrnak made it 3-1 at 12:14 of the third period. Desharnais collided with Condon as Pastrnak went around the net before the winger easily slid it past Condon on the right side of the crease.

"It felt good," the second-year winger said. "I played after missing a while and it felt nice to be back. I was focusing on being good in the defensive zone and do the small things in the game."

Marchand capped off the scoring with a short-handed tally into an empty net.

"It's extremely disappointing," right winger Dale Weise said. "You come in every night and you try to reset and be positive, and when you continue to lose games, it's just disappointing every night. There's nothing you can say at this point."

Montreal finished the game down two players. Defenseman Nathan Beaulieu did not return after sustaining a lower-body injury in the first period while left winger Paul Byron didn't return after suffering a lower-body injury in the second.

NOTES: The Canadiens made one change to its lineup, inserting RW Devante Smith-Pelly after sitting three games as a healthy scratch, in place of LW Jacob De La Rose. ... Montreal also scratched D Victor Bartley and D Greg Pateryn. ... Bruins C David Krejci traveled with the team to Montreal but missed his 10th straight game with an upper-body injury suffered back on Dec. 27. ... RW David Pastrnak returned to Boston's lineup after missing the last three games with an upper-body injury. The Bruins scratched C Landon Ferraro (upper-body injury, day-to-day), RW Tyler Randell and D Colin Miller. ... Two-and-a-half weeks after their Winter Classic meeting, the Canadiens and Bruins wore their uniforms from the outdoor game on Tuesday night. ... The game wrapped up the five-game season series between the two long-time rivals.