Byron, Price helps Montreal Canadiens get past Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday

Paul Byron had two goals and an assist and Carey Price stopped 21 of 22 shots Saturday as the visiting Montreal Canadiens outworked the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1.

Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Charles Hudon also scored, and Artturi Lehkonen and Jeff Petry each had two assists for the Canadiens (1-0-1).

Riley Sheahan scored for the Penguins (1-1-0). Goalie Matt Murray made 24 saves.

It was a precipitous dropoff in the offence for Pittsburgh, which won its opener 7-6 over Washington on Thursday.

The teams meet again next Saturday in Montreal.

Pittsburgh had won five straight against the Canadiens and last season swept them in three games, coming from behind and scoring five goals in each of the three. There would be no repeat this time after Montreal built a 4-0 lead.

Gallagher opened the scoring at 11:08 of the first. A shot by Tomas Tatar went off the stick of Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta and right to Gallagher, who swept the puck past Murray.

At 15:56 of the first, Byron went backhand to forehand to beat Murray after he got a pass from Andrew Shaw and split defensemen Maatta and Jack Johnson as he bore in on the net.

Byron made it 3-0 at 3:43 of the second. Max Domi freed the puck behind the net and swatted it to Byron, who swept it past Murray.

While Montreal was shorthanded, Byron and Armia had a two-on-one. Armia backhanded Byron's pass over Murray's blocker to make it 4-0 at 14:05 of the second.

That gave the Canadiens four goals on 14 shots.

Pittsburgh finally broke through at 17:10 of the second. Sheahan scored on a rebound as he was falling forward 12 feet from the crease, cutting it to 4-1.

Kris Letang got a secondary assist on Sheahan's goal, giving him 441 career points and moving him past Hall of Famer Paul Coffey as the top-scoring defenseman in Penguins history.

Hudon scored on a wraparound at 10:08 of the third to push it to 5-1.

(With inputs from agencies.)