Carey Price gets 250th career victory

WASHINGTON -- Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price made 20 saves for the 250th win of his NHL career, a 2-1 victory against the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center on Saturday.
Price bounced back after he was pulled in the second period of a 4-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Friday, when he allowed four goals on 18 shots.
Artturi Lehkonen and Jeff Petry scored for the Canadiens (20-7-4).

"I think it was important for everybody to get an opportunity to bounce back," Price said. "I didn't have any doubts about the resiliency of our hockey team and the way we would respond. It definitely felt good to come in here and get a big win."
WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Capitals highlights
Nicklas Backstrom scored and Braden Holtby made 23 saves for the Capitals (19-8-3), whose win streak ended at six games.

Lehkonen scored at 14:41 of the first period for a 1-0 Canadiens lead. Lehkonen's wraparound attempt bounced off Holtby's stick and into the net for his sixth goal of the season.
Backstrom scored on a 5-on-3 at 14:16 of the second period to tie the game 1-1. Backstrom converted a pass from Justin Williams for his ninth goal of the season.
"They were defending pretty well and they've got one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League in Price," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "He's been outstanding. We didn't make it hard enough, I thought, on Carey. ... I thought they had a little more bite in their game than we did."

Petry gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead with his goal at 16:39 of the second when he chipped in a pass from Max Pacioretty. The goal was Petry's sixth of the season.

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Goal of the game

Lehkonen got to the puck behind the net and circled to wrap it around. His shot bounced off Holtby's stick and in between the goaltender's legs.

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Save of the game

Price stopped Lars Eller's scoring chance through traffic with a left pad save midway through the second period.

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Highlight of the game

A tic-tac-toe play leading to Backstrom's goal started with John Carlson's play from his knees along the boards. Carlson passed to Alex Ovechkin, who fed Williams, who sent a pass on the doorstep to Backstrom. Price was stranded at the right post and attempted a kick save, but Backstrom elevated his shot over Price's left pad.

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Unsung performance of the game

Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber left the game after taking Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov's shot off his right leg in the second period. The Canadiens were down to four defensemen at the time because of Nathan Beaulieu's 10-minute penalty for abuse of officials. Weber returned for the third. "I was coming (back) no matter what," Weber said. "Obviously it's just pain and just play through it."

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They said it

"You don't want to get too fine. You get a chance to snipe, you snipe. And when you're not getting a lot of looks because the other team's doing a really good job keeping you out to the other side, you have to force yourself inside their house a little bit." -- Capitals coach Barry Trotz
"You know exactly what you're going to get from him every night. We weren't good enough for him [Friday] night and we did a lot better job in protecting him and clearing everything out of the way for him tonight." -- Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber on goalie Carey Price
"We knew the quality of their hockey team and positioning was really important in the way we wanted to play. In the meantime, we were aggressive on the puck carrier. I think our guys were really aggressive on that puck carrier to take their time and space, because they've got so many weapons it was important to play a really solid game." -- Canadiens coach Michel Therrien

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Need to know

The Canadiens blocked 21 shots. … Washington lost in regulation for the first time since Dec. 1. … Backstrom has 18 points in his past 16 games.

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What's next

Canadiens: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; PRIME, RDS, SNE,
NHL.TV
)
Capitals: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVA Sports, SN,
NHL.TV
)