MONTREAL— Common sense should have told the Blue Jackets to chip pucks deep and force the Canadiens to come 200 feet to beat them in the third period.

Leading 3-2 and dictating the pace, all the Jackets needed was one boring period of hockey on the road, the kind coach Ken Hitchcock has been accused of playing for more than a decade.

Remember when Hitchcock's teams could lock down games? It probably seems like a distant memory to him.

The Blue Jackets came unhinged in the third period, turning over pucks and making defensive gaffes that allowed the Canadiens to score three times for a 5-3 win in the Bell Centre.

"We didn't manage the game - that's the story of our season," said Hitchcock, whose team lost its third straight. "We had the game in control, we played two perfect periods and then we didn't manage the game.

"We forced pucks. We forced ourselves up ice from the back end and lost the game because of it."

The winning goal by Marc-Andre Bergeron, his second goal of the game, summed up the struggles of the Jackets, who entered the game ranked 28th in goals-against average at 3.46.

Instead of getting the puck deep, they forced a play at the attacking blue line and saw the Canadiens roar down the ice. Montreal forward Max Pacioretty broke in alone, only to be poke-checked by goaltender Mathieu Garon. Four Jackets chased the puck below the goal line and Montreal's Ryan White centered it from behind the net to Bergeron, who beat a fallen Garon at 4:56.

The goal came less than three minutes after the Canadiens tied it on a Glen Metropolit rebound.

"We dominated half a game, giving us a quick glance of how we can play and then it was back to the way we played the last two games," Jackets captain Rick Nash said. "It kicked us in the butt again."

The Jackets got two goals from Antoine Vermette and a third from defenseman Anton Stralman. The Jackets power play, ranked third in the league, was 2 of 4.

After surrendering seven goals to the New York Rangers on Monday night, the Jackets dominated play for long stretches, building a 21-8 shot advantage over Montreal midway through the game.

Canadiens goaltender Carey Price decisively outplayed Garon. Price was terrific in the first two periods, robbing R.J. Umberger repeatedly, and finished with 33 saves. He also made a huge stop on Kristian Huselius with 4:45 left which could have tied it. Seconds later, the Canadiens countered on a two-on-one and Maxim Lapierre beat Garon from the left circle.

Garon made 24 stops and also got beat long range by Mike Cammalleri on the game's first goal.

"We have not got good goaltending the last two nights, it's got to be better," Hitchcock said. "You can't put in efforts like we did and then throw it away. We are not focused in the right areas to win hockey games.

"We want to play a different game than the one you need to play to shut a game down. We want to continually play in a track meet and that's what we did and we got burnt."

treed@dispatch.com