Price gets 350th NHL win, Canadiens defeat Canucks to extend streak

VANCOUVER -- Carey Price got his 350th NHL win in the Montreal Canadiens' 5-2 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Montreal (4-0-2) joined the 1968-69 Canadiens (5-0-1) as the only teams in NHL history to have played the first six games of a season on the road and get at least one point in each.
Price, who made 23 saves, has played his entire career with Montreal after being selected with the No. 5 pick at the 2005 NHL Draft. His best save came when he slid across to rob Canucks forward Jake Virtanen on a backdoor one-timer at 12:47 of the second period.
"I'm not going to lie, this is a great road trip for us," coach Claude Julien said. "You start with your first six games on the road, it's not an easy schedule, but I thought we embraced it. We got better as the games went on, and obviously building a little bit more chemistry along the way as well on the ice and off the ice, so there's a lot of good things that came out of this road trip."

Braden Holtby made 28 saves for the Canucks (2-5-0), who have lost five of their past six games.
Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander scored 2:18 apart early in the third period to tie it 2-2, but Brendan Gallagher put Montreal back in front at 9:07 on a 2-on-1, and Jonathan Drouin scored his first of the season on a breakaway at 12:44 to make it 4-2.
"It's frustrating for sure," Pettersson said. "We battled back, scored two quick goals. We had momentum and then they scored a quick one on us. Of course, it's frustrating."
Nick Suzuki and Corey Perry, who played his first game with the Canadiens, also scored.
Montreal scored 17 goals in its three-game set in Vancouver, winning the final two games by a combined 12-5 score after a 6-5 shootout loss on Wednesday. It's the fifth time since 2000-01 the Canadiens have scored five or more goals in at least three consecutive games.
"Any line could put the puck in the net," Drouin said. "It was nice to get that first one, but with the balance we have you don't really think about that."

Suzuki gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 10:54 of the first period with a quick release off the rush from inside the right face-off dot.
Perry, who was promoted from the taxi squad in place of forward Joel Armia (concussion), made it 2-0 on a rush at 11:42 of the second period after defenseman Olli Juolevi hit the post at the other end. Perry signed a one-year contract with the Canadiens on Dec. 28 after reaching the Stanley Cup Final with the Dallas Stars last season.
"It was quick the first couple shifts but once you get in the flow of the game, I've played a few games in this league, so it comes back," Perry said. "I felt good overall. The hands felt good."
Pettersson scored his first of the season and ended an NHL career high five-game point drought with a deflection to make it 2-1 at 3:50 of the third period.
Hoglander tied it 2-2 with a backhand from the slot through a screen at 6:08, but the Canadiens answered with two more goals off turnovers that led to odd-man rushes before Joel Edmundson scored an empty-net goal at 17:06 for the 5-2 final.
Vancouver has allowed 33 goals, the most in the NHL.
"We're just finding ways to kind of shoot ourselves in the foot right now and give them too many easy ones," Canucks forward J.T. Miller said. "And it's making it hard on our goalies, for sure. I feel like we're giving up so many breakaways and great grade A's a game."
NOTES: Suzuki has a point in each game (two goals, four assists), becoming the 10th Canadiens player in the past 45 years to start the season with a point streak of at least six games. … Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler was minus-2 in 22:01 of ice time after he missed one game with an upper-body injury. … Jordie Benn made his season debut after coming off COVID-19 protocol Wednesday. He is the ninth defenseman to play for Vancouver this season.