Perreault lifts Jets past Canadiens
MONTREAL -- Mathieu Perreault's early third-period goal stood as the winner as the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Bell Centre.
Joel Armia and Patrik Laine also scored for the Jets while Andrei Markov replied for Montreal.
Carey Price made 30 saves for the Canadiens (31-20-8), who kept up the trend of teams losing coming off their bye week.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 19 shots for Winnipeg (27-29-6), which earned just its second win in its last nine games in Montreal.
Saturday's game also marked Claude Julien's first game behind the Montreal bench since replacing Michel Therrien, who was fired on Tuesday.
Both sides had chances early to get the scoring started but Hellebuyck denied Paul Byron with a shot from the slot while Price got his blocker on a Blake Wheeler shot from the circle. Price looked like his old self a little later in the period when he flashed the glove to deny Laine after the Canadiens struggled to clear the zone.
That proved to be a key save for Montreal, setting the stage for the home side to take the lead moments later.
The Canadiens intercepted Ben Chiarot's clearing attempt and, after Alex Galchenyuk fed an unattended Max Pacioretty in the right circle, Pacioretty sent it toward the net where Markov easily tapped in his fourth of the season at 11:04.
Armia tied it with his first career shorthanded goal at 4:52 of the second period. Nathan Beaulieu tried to make his way through the neutral zone but gave up the puck to Armia, who skated in alone before deking to beat Price.
Perreault put the Jets in front at 1:16 of the third. Dustin Byfuglien showed off his skills as he worked his way from the blue line down low, maintaining control of the puck with just one hand on his stick. The puck made its way to Perreault in front, where he lifted a backhander for his fifth of the season.
Price came up big again in the final minutes of the third with another glove save on Laine, who later sealed the win with his 28th goal into an empty net.
NOTES: Montreal D Andrei Markov played in his 968th career game, tying Yvan Cournoyer for seventh place on the Canadiens' all-time list. ... Called up from the AHL's St. John's IceCaps on Friday, Canadiens C/W Michael McCarron was in the lineup, while C David Desharnais, RW Sven Andrighetto and D Greg Pateryn were healthy scratches. ... Winnipeg scratched RW Drew Stafford and D Julian Melchiori, while C Andrew Copp missed his second game because of an upper-body injury. ... The game was the second of a four-game trip for the Jets, who will go on to play the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs.