Canadiens top Coyotes for fifth win in six games

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens won for the fifth time in six games, spoiling Alex Galchenyuk's return to Bell Centre with a 2-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.

Jonathan Drouin scored a power-play goal in the first period and Mike Reilly broke a 1-1 tie early in the third for Montreal (28-18-5), which passed the Boston Bruins and moved into third place in the Atlantic Division entering the 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend. Carey Price made 30 saves for his 20th victory and the 2,000th NHL home win for the Canadiens.
"It's definitely nice to end on that, for sure," Price said. "It was obviously a goal when we got here tonight, to leave on a great note."
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Canadiens highlights]
Conor Garland scored a power-play goal late in the second period for Arizona (23-23-4), which had won the first two games of its three-game Canadian road trip. Calvin Pickard made 22 saves in his first start for the Coyotes, who recalled him from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Jan. 13.
Arizona captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson did not play because of a lower-body injury he sustained in a 3-2 win at the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
Reilly gave Montreal a 2-1 lead at 4:48 of the third period, bearing Pickard with a slap shot through traffic from the left point for his third goal of the season.
"One thing I like about our group is if we have a setback, we're able to respond with the right effort," forward Brendan Gallagher said. "Coming off a loss (5-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday), we knew this game was important, and we found a way to win. That's a positive sign going forward.

Galchenyuk, who was acquired from Montreal in a trade for forward Max Domi on June 15, 2018, appeared to have scored the tying goal on a power play at 16:21 of the third. However, Canadiens coach Claude Julien challenged that the Coyotes were offside on the play that led to the goal, and it was overturned after a video review.
"Obviously to have that goal called back is tough," Garland said. "We fought hard on that power play there. I think we used all two minutes of it to get that one, so to have it taken back stinks. But we fought hard this road trip, you know, losing (Ekman-Larsson) hurts for tonight but you know we did fight all the way through."
Canadiens captain Shea Weber credited Montreal's video coach for spotting the offside.
"That was huge," Weber said. "From the bench, it was tough to see. The guys on the ice said that they thought it was possibly off, but obviously he was paying attention, saw it right away, and I mean that's the difference in the game right there."
Drouin gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 9:29 of the first period, taking a pass from Tomas Tatar and beating Pickard for his 14th of the season.

Garland tied it 1-1 at 18:28 of the second, converting a pass from Nick Cousins for his ninth of the season.
"I was proud of our team, we emptied the tank," said Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet, whose team was playing for the third time in four nights. "We had a lot of adversity the last couple of days. With an inch there we had it tied, so it was a hard-fought game."

They said it

"It was so nice to be back competing and it was a great environment to do it in. And credit to our guys; they made it easy on me and it's too bad we couldn't get out of here with some points. But to get back out there on the ice and battle with these guys, you know, it's nice to be back." -- Coyotes goaltender Calvin Pickard about playing his first NHL game since Nov. 24, when he was with the Philadelphia Flyers
"Every time the puck crosses the blue line, they check the replay. Good work on their part. They deserve all the credit because I didn't see it. They said it was offside and they showed it to me. That saved us." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien about Montreal's video coach alerting him to the offside that disallowed what would have been the game-tying goal

Need to know

Price has nine 20-win seasons, tying Jacques Plante and Patrick Roy for the most in Canadiens history. … Montreal is 2,000-850-83 with 382 ties in 3,315 home games since the NHL began play in 1917-18.

What's next

Coyotes: At the San Jose Sharks on Feb. 2 (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: Host the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 2 (2 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, MSG+, NHL.TV)