MONTREAL – The Islanders played the part of French-fried visiteurs in a 3-2 loss to the Canadiens at the Molson Centre in front of 19,967 last night in a game they’re going to have nightmares about until they visit the Penguins on Wednesday.

While baseball may be on the verge of dying here, Isles head coach Peter Laviolette was forced to turn to his bullpen last night when his starting goalie, Chris Osgood, let a couple of meatballs get past him. After Osgood, the NHL Player of the Month for October, let Yanic Perreault’s goal, a tip of a lazy floater thrown at him from just inside the blue line, get past him and his red goalie pads, Laviolette had seen enough.

The shot hit Osgood, bounced up and danced over his goalie stick as he made a last-ditch effort to scoop the puck away from the goal line on his stomach at 15:40 of the second, putting the Isles in a 3-1 hole. Osgood, who did not speak with reporters after the game, was pulled in favor of Garth Snow, who shut out the Habs the rest of the way, facing only eight shots.

“I’m pretty embarrassed, to be honest with you,” Laviolette said of his team’s effort.

So soft were the Islanders (11-3-1-1) that they didn’t have a penalty called on them the whole game for the first time since Jan. 26, 1980 (vs. Hartford), almost playing like it was part of a no-checking league.

“I think the fact that we had zero penalty minutes showed,” Michael Peca said.

Alexei Yashin got the Islanders to within one when he scored his second goal of the game at 18:22 of the second period on the power play after Patrice Brisebois was whistled for high-sticking.

Yashin, who was booed each time he touched the puck in his first return to Canada as an Islander, blew through Andreas Dackell and Joe Juneau like the bitter cold winds that whip down St. Catharines Street here and snapped a shot from the slot to beat Jose Theodore.

It was Yashin that kept the Islanders within striking distance of the Habs (7-7-2-0) all night, scoring the Isles’ first goal of the game just after Oleg Petrov put the Canadiens ahead 2-0 on a shot past a flailing Osgood.

“Maybe we thought we were just going to come in here and win, I don’t know,” Laviolette said.

Yashin took a feed from Kenny Jonsson, who worked hard to circle the puck in the right corner and stuffed it inside the near post at 14:46 of the second, momentarily stopping a Canadiens run, 1:46 before Osgood got the hook.

“Everybody was pretty embarrassed and [ticked] off,” Mark Parrish said. “We have to get mad before the game and not five minutes after.”

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Parrish continued his 11-game scoring streak with his assist on Yashin’s first goal. Since the win over Carolina Oct. 17, Parrish has contributed five goals and seven assists . . . Isles scratched D Ken Sutton last night.