Canadiens lose Carey Price again but beat Rangers

When star goalie Carey Price exited after two periods with a recurring injury, the Montreal Canadiens responded.

Devante Smith-Pelly and Alex Galchenyuk scored in the opening 1:29 of the third, and Montreal beat the New York Rangers 5-1 Wednesday night in a matchup of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference.

"You want to keep your foot on the pedal," said Smith-Pelly, who did not know Price was hurt until backup Mike Condon led the team onto the ice with the Canadiens leading 2-1. "Obviously, we knew they were going to come out hard in the third and with a big push and we'd have to score early and kind of take the wind out of them."

The Canadiens did just that in snapping the Rangers' nine-game winning streak at home and handing them only their second loss in 12 games.

And it wasn't the big-name players who came through for Montreal.

Smith-Pelley had his first two-goal game in the NHL. Sven Andrighetto got his first of the season and Max Pacioretty put the finishing touches on it with a power-play goal.

The Canadiens have handed the Rangers (16-4-2) two of their four losses in regulation this season. The only concern for Montreal after the game was Price, who stopped 22 shots in the first two periods.

Price tweaked previous injury

Coach Michel Therrien said the 2015 NHL MVP and Vezina Trophy winner was sidelined by the same lower-body injury that kept him out for eight games earlier this month. This was his third game back.

"The medical staff was really comfortable and Carey was really comfortable to come back," Therrien said. "If we had any doubt, for sure, we would not take that risk. That's all we can say about it. He tweaked it again tonight. That's why we don't want to take any chance. It's still early in the season, so it's important for us when he plays, he's got to make sure he is healthy."

Rick Nash scored for the Rangers in their largest loss of the season. New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist was lifted after Pacioretty's power-play goal made it 5-1.

The Canadiens (17-4-2) made sure Condon never felt the pressure of a close game at Madison Square Garden. Smith-Pelly scored his second of the night and third of the season from in close off a nice feed by Tomas Plekanec, who had three assists.

Galchenyuk scored on a bad-angle shot that Lundqvist misplayed in helping Montreal move into first place in the conference.

"We're very, very happy with the way we played," Pacioretty said. "They are probably not happy with the way they played."