Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward (42) celebrates with teammates Karl Alzner (27) and Andre Burakovsky (42) after scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens during the third period at the Bell Centre.Eric Bolte
Joel Ward scored late in the third period to give the visiting Washington Capitals a 2-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in NHL pre-season action on Sunday.
Backup goaltender Justin Peters stopped all seven shots he faced for Washington (3-2-0) before being replaced by Braden Holtby mid-way through the second period. Holtby made an additional 11 saves for the combined shutout.
Brooks Laich added a second goal for the Capitals in an empty net in the game's last minute.
Carey Price made 29 saves for Montreal (3-1-0) in his first full game of the pre-season.
Price, who played 30 minutes in Montreal's 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, was solid in his first full game since abruptly leaving last year's Stanley Cup playoffs with a knee injury. Price made several key saves, including back-to-back stops in the third period on Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom
Ward put an end to penalty-filled affair at 18:31 of the third when his saucer shot flew into the net just out of the reach of Price.
The game was sloppy for the most part, with a total 12 minor penalties dished out by the referees — including a bench penalty in the first period for each team for having too many men on the ice.
The Caps, who went 4-for-13 on the power play in their first four pre-season games coming into this one, were kept off the score sheet with the man advantage.
Washington squandered five power-play opportunities in the first two periods, and another one in the third — a five-minute major to prospect Jarred Tinordi for elbowing.
Tinordi, who played 22 games with the Habs last year, was shown the exit two minutes into the final period when the defender hit an unsuspecting Nate Schmidt in the face with his shoulder. Tinordi was given five minutes and a game misconduct. The 22-year-old had already been penalized twice in the match — for tripping and for kneeing in the first period.
Ovechkin, who led the NHL in power-play goals last year, didn't register a point after scoring twice his last time out.
It took Montreal 11:17 to register its first shot of the game, a backhand shot by Alex Galchenyuk that Peters saved easily.
Montreal opens its season on Oct. 8 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre.