Canadiens hand Canucks fifth straight loss

VANCOUVER -- Jonathan Drouin scored a power-play goal with 2:44 left in the third period and Carey Price made 35 saves to help the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Andrew Shaw tied it 2-2 at 11:41 of the third period. Drouin scored eight seconds after Canucks defenseman Michael Del Zotto was whistled for interference.
"I just walked the line and saw Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher] going to the net and they had two D screening their own goalie, so I just tried to aim for that right side of the net," said Drouin, who has three goals and three assists in a five-game point streak. "It went top corner."
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Tomas Tatar also scored for the Canadiens (11-6-3), who also rallied in the third period to defeat the Calgary Flames 3-2 on Thursday. Montreal opened its three-game Western Canada road trip with a 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
"A big character win for us to come back," Price said. "It's good to get a couple bounce-back games after Edmonton and make it a successful road trip."

Price was in goal for each win and made 43 saves in Calgary after not starting for a week; he backed up Antti Niemi for two games after going 1-3-1 with an .854 save percentage in his previous five starts.
"We know how calm he is, how ready he is every game," Drouin said. "Last few games, we saw the Carey Price where pucks just hit him and he's never out of position."
Elias Pettersson and Del Zotto scored and Markstrom made 28 saves for the Canucks (10-10-2), who have lost five straight games (0-4-1).
"For me to let in two in the last 10 minutes of the third, it's very frustrating," Markstrom said. "I don't care how it looks, but we've got to win, especially those tight games."
Tatar scored on a breakaway at 8:07 of the second period to make it 1-0, finishing a nice stretch pass from defenseman Jeff Petry with a wrist shot over Markstrom's glove.
It was the sixth goal in the past six games for Tatar, who was acquired in the trade that sent forward Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sept. 10.
Del Zotto scored his first of the season to tie it 1-1 at 16:13 of the second period when a point shot deflected in the slot right to him at the side of the net.
Pettersson scored his team- and NHL rookie-leading 11th goal on a power play one-timer to put the Canucks ahead 2-1 at 10:09 of the third period. It was Pettersson's 11th goal of the season and first point in five games.
"I've had some games where I haven't created that much. It was a little relief to finally get one," Pettersson said. "We've just got to find a way to win. We've just got to face the reality and be better. We can't hide from it. We've just got to be better."
Shaw tied it when Max Domi's centering pass deflected in off his skate at the top of the crease.
"It brings back some of that Calgary game a little bit, where you are down a goal on the road and you have to show character, you've got to find a way to put the puck in," Drouin said. "If you look at our tying goals, they're not pretty; they're just around the net and that's something we can build on."

They said it

"We all knew he hadn't been playing his best when we gave him that little bit of a break, but now he's back to being Carey, that's the difference. He's calm, he's making saves. Sometimes a little step backwards and time to refocus is not a bad thing. These goalies play under pressure every game." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien on goalie Carey Price
"That's the NHL, though. You're going to play well and you're going to lose some games when you play well, and you're going to find a way to win games when you don't play well. And you hope you're on the right end of those nights more often." -- Canucks coach Travis Green

Need to know

Domi has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in a nine-game point streak, becoming the 10th player with a streak that long in his first season with the Canadiens and the first since Pierre Turgeon had a 13-game streak in 1994-95. Domi is also the first Canadiens player with 24 (10 goals, 14 assist) or more points in his first 20 games since Odie Cleghorn in 1918-19. … Shaw has seven points (five goals, two assists) in a five-game point streak. … Canucks center Bo Horvat won 23 of 34 face-offs (68 percent).

What's next

Canadiens: Host the Washington Capitals on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)
Canucks: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Monday (10 p.m. ET; SNP, TSN3, NHL.TV)