The Canadiens lost the game and an important member of their defensive brigade on Thursday night at the Bell Centre.

Alex Laferriere broke the tie early in the second period, David Rittich stopped 26 shots and the Los Angeles Kings beat Montreal 4-1.

The Habs lost Mike Matheson, who did not return to play after the first period. The team simply indicated that he was suffering from an upper-body injury.

Matheson had three assists in the first four games of the season and had averaged 25:49 per game.

In his absence, the power play had a difficult night, failing to capitalize on four opportunities.

The Canadiens often lacked cohesion and were unable to take advantage of the generosity of a club that had conceded 14 goals in its last two games and had played in another city the day before.

Justin Barron was the lone goal scorer for the Canadiens (2-3-0), who suffered a seventh straight loss to the Kings (0-6-1). Samuel Montembeault made 28 saves.

Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe, into an empty net, also scored for the Kings (2-1-2).

The Canadiens will play their next game on Saturday, when they visit the New York Islanders.

One club better organized than the other
The Kings lacked opportunism at the start of the match, otherwise they could have quickly taken the lead.

Montembeault had to make his mark at the expense of Anze Kopitar, then Alex Turcotte and Warren Foegele missed opportunities to shoot into a gaping net.

The Habs finally opened the scoring at 7:02. Barron got past forward Quinton Byfield, then beat Rittich around the back of the net.

Moments later, Montembeault frustrated Kevin Fiala, who had escaped.

The Kings tied it 1-1 with 1:40 left in the first period. Anderson surprised Montembeault with a long shot that may have grazed a Canadiens player during its drive.

The visitors came back at the 1:37 mark of the second period. Laferriere deflected a shot from Jordan Spence, not giving Montembeault a chance to make the save.

Laferriere had a great chance to extend the lead by breaking away later in the period. However, he missed the target with a backhand shot.

At the other end, Rittich was effective, although every save seemed difficult. He stopped a point-blank shot by Nick Suzuki.

Rittich was also alert when Kirby Dach received the puck while he was alone in front of the net.

Fiala escaped again and this time he was bothered by Lane Hutson and the referee awarded a penalty shot to the Kings forward. Fiala’s shot grazed Montembeault’s left pad before going wide of the net.

Englund dealt a major blow to the Canadiens’ hopes by surprising Montembeault with a long shot with 2:58 left on the clock.

The Canadiens had a power play late in the game and also replaced Montembeault with an extra attacker for a six-on-four advantage. Rittich shut the door, however, and then Kempe scored into an empty net with 47.7 seconds left.