MONTREAL — Even if the Montreal Impact were held to a 1-1 draw by D.C. United, they were happy to rebound from their worst outing of the season with a strong effort on Wednesday night.

Defender Hassoun Camara, a force for Montreal at both ends of the field, nodded in a goal in the 77th minute as the Impact salvaged a point despite stretching their winless run to three games.

The Impact avoided being shut out at Saputo Stadium for a second straight game and showed some energy and determination after a listless 3-0 setback to the last-place Chicago Fire on home turf on Saturday.

And they probably would have got the win if not for some brilliant saves from D.C. goalkeeper Bill Hamid.

"They battled," coach Mauro Biello said of his team. "They came out wanting to win, but unfortunately, a great goalie made some saves and that was the difference."

Lamar Neagle scored on a 35th-minute penalty for D.C. (6-8-11), which is unbeaten in five games. But the Camara goal prevented sixth-place United from closing a five-point gap in the standings with fifth-place Montreal (8-7-10).

The draw was also important because it gave them a boost going into a showdown on Saturday with rival Toronto FC, who took over top spot in the Eastern Conference with a 2-1 victory in Orlando.

"It's a big challenge," said Biello. "But there's no better game to spring us in the right direction than to get a victory in Toronto. We've never won there. Those are the games you want to play."

The Impact were a desperate team, having been booed off the field against Chicago. But fate looked to be against them in the 35th minute when referee Robert Sibiga pointed to the spot after Donny Toia tripped Patrick Nyarko in the penalty area on a play that did not appear to be a quality scoring chance.

Neagle, a former Impact midfielder, made no mistake from the spot.

Goalkeeper Evan Bush said Montreal showed its composure by keeping cool and pressing for at least a draw.

"We went down 1-0 on a penalty and we could have packed it in again and felt sorry for ourselves and said 'here we go again,' but we showed a ton of character in the second half," said Bush. "I don't think they had many chances.

"We did well handling them in transaction. We need that because the last nine games (of the regular season) are going to be dogfights."

The pressure paid off when Marco Donadel recovered his own ball after a Neagle block and lofted a pass to the far post that Camara headed in for his second goal of the season.

There were more chances later, but Ignacio Piatti's shot went just wide and Matteo Mancosu just missed another chance. The crowd of 19,740 screamed handball on the Piatti effort, but no penalty was called, although Sibiga sent off D.C.'s Kofi Opare in the 90th minute for a challenge on Donadel.

Bush was shown the yellow card for arguing the D.C. penalty and was not happy with how the officials handled the situation. While he admitted what he said to them was "immature," he said it was inappropriate that an official answered him back and tried to bait him into further discussion.

Biello wasn't thrilled either. He said the penalty call was "soft" and wondered why they didn't have the "courage" to call the hand ball against D.C.

"I don't want to go after the referees all the time but they're costing us points," he said.

For a third game in a row Laurent Ciman had a different partner in the central defence. This time it was Camara, as Wandrille Lefevre and Victor Cabrera both stayed on the bench. Camara was named player of the game.

With the Impact in the midst of three games in eight days, coach Biello managed some starters' minutes. Midfielder Venegas took Calum Mallace's spot and made his first appearance since July 17 against New York City and first start since July 13 at Portland. Forward Michael Salazar started ahead of Mancosu.

D.C. also rested several starters.