MONTREAL -- It was a long first shift in overtime, but there was no way Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews was going to give up the chance for an odd-man rush.

Matthews took a pass from William Nylander and his second goal of the game gave the Maple Leafs a 4-3 overtime victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at Bell Centre, snapping Toronto's 14-game losing streak against the Habs.

"I was kind of contemplating changing, but I didn't want to give up a three-on-two," Matthews said.

The goal, 48 seconds into the overtime, was Matthews' fifth of the season.

It was the Leafs' first win against the Canadiens since Jan. 18, 2014.

"It was a nice win for us given the history," Toronto goaltender Frederik Andersen said. He played a strong game with 31 saves, including a good stop on Montreal's Paul Byron seconds before Matthews scored the winner.

"We wanted to change the narrative a little bit from that," Andersen said.

James van Riemsdyk and Patrick Marleau also scored for the Maple Leafs (4-1-0).

Jeff Petry, Alex Galchenyuk and Jonathan Drouin scored for the Canadiens (1-3-1) and Carey Price made 18 saves.

Price took the blame for the loss, the Canadiens' fourth in a row.

"I guess I just misread where he was trying to shoot," he said of Matthews' shot on the winner. "I thought this might have been our best game of the year. We played very well, but unfortunately I didn’t play my best game of the year.

"I think if I would had played better, we would be looking at this a different way."

The win was the 600th in the NHL for Toronto coach Mike Babcock, who liked the way Matthews and Nylander took control in overtime.

"They want to be in those moments," he said. "I think they are guys who have been doing that their whole life. They just believe they are going to get it done at that time.

"Fortunate for us, I didn't think we were outstanding by any means but found a way to win. A good road game. Our goaltender got better as the game went on and had a good third and in the end we win."

The Canadiens led 1-0 on Jeff Petry's first goal of the year 2:19 into the game, but the Leafs scored two goals in 44 seconds to take a 2-1 lead.

Van Riemsdyk got the first one and Matthews took advantage when Price's right foot slipped and he couldn’t recover to stop Matthews' shot at 8:16 of the first.

Galchenyuk tied it with his first of the season and the first for the Habs on the power play (they were 0 of 14 to start the seasons) at 16:49 of the first.

Drouin, with his first for the Canadiens, gave Montreal a 3-2 lead at 11:33 of the second period, 19 seconds after a video review upheld referee Jon McIssac's ruling that Matthews had batted the puck in with a high stick.

Marleau tied it 3-3 at 12:40 of the second with his third goal of the season after a video review showed he jammed the puck inside the left post before Price scooped it out of the net.

Canadiens coach Claude Julien said the only thing his team can do is stay the course.

"We look at the way we played tonight and we played well enough," he said. "A little mistake here and there, a little bad break. On the second goal, Carey lost an edge or something and he didn't have enough time to get back in position. You look at that and say 'Geez, when are we going to get that break? Why are we always getting those kinds of things?'

"The only thing I would say is when things aren't going well, try and minimize the mistakes. At the end of the day here, there's a pretty good team here that probably deserves a better record than it has."

NOTES: Canadiens D Dave Schlemko was called up after a one-game conditioning stint with the Laval Rocket of the AHL but did not play against the Leafs. Schlemko has not played an NHL game this season because of a hand injury. ... Leafs D Connor Carrick returned to the lineup after missing two games with an upper-body injury, pushing Calle Rosen out of the lineup. ... With the Leafs platooning fourth-line centers, it was Eric Fehr's turn to go into the lineup. Dominic Moore sat out.