Calvin Pickard played well, but Carey Price was better as the Montreal Canadiens earned a 2-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night at the Bell Centre in their last game before the All-Star break.

The Canadiens opened the scoring with a power-play goal from Jonathan Drouin at 9:29 of the first period. Tomas Tatar had an assist on the goal, extending his point streak to four games, scoring two goals and three assists in that span. The Coyotes tied it late in the second period when Conor Garland tallied his ninth goal of the season on the power-play. Mike Reilly scored the go-ahead goal with a shot from the blue line, his third of the season, 4:48 into the third period.

Alex Galchenyuk, who was making his return to Montreal after he was traded for Max Domi last June, thought he had scored the tying goal late in the third, but the Canadiens challenged that the play was offside. After the video review the play was indeed offside as the goal was called off and the score remained 2-1 Montreal. Galchenyuk spent the first six seasons of his career with the Habs, scoring 255 points in 418 games with the club and was honoured during a TV timeout.

The Canadiens have allowed two goals or less in seven of their last nine games as Price stopped 30 of 31 shots for his 20^th win of the season. Coyotes’ goalie Pickard, who was making his first start for Arizona, stopped 22 of 24 shots, and made some big saves throughout the second period to keep it a one-goal game.

Each team had a power-play goal, as Montreal went 1-for-2 and Arizona went 1-for-3.

The Canadiens (28-18-5) sit third in the Atlantic division as they are 5-1-0 in their last six games heading into the All-Star break, followed by the ‘bye week,’ five consecutive days off that every team gets either before or after the All-Star Game, which is in San Jose this weekend. Arizona (23-23-4) is 6-2-1 in their last nine as they also head into the long break but sit a few points out of a playoff spot.

Up Next:

Because of the long break, both teams’ next game isn’t until Saturday Feb. 2. Montreal will host the New Jersey Devils (18-23-7), while Arizona will face the Sharks (29-16-7) in San Jose.

Sources:

-All stats, info and videos courtesy of NHL.com