MONTREAL -- The Washington Capitals' depth helped them get started and their special teams kept them on top.

Two goals from the bottom six combined with Nicklas Backstrom's power-play goal helped the Capitals to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday at the Bell Centre.

Jay Beagle and Andre Burakovsky also scored for Washington (35-11-6).

"When we're on our heels and we're not coming out of our end with control of the puck, that's when we run into a little bit of a problem," said Max Pacioretty, who scored his 25th of the season.

"It wasn't like Philly -- we didn't come out of the zone, we didn't control the puck, and we were on our heels and late to those pucks. That happened a tiny bit (today), not much, but they're the hottest team in the league and we've got to dig a little deeper to get those two points."

Montreal had a couple of early chances, taking the first three shots on goal. But it was the Capitals who got on the board first with their first shot on goal of the afternoon.

Daniel Winnik found Beagle in the high slot and the center sniped his 11th of the season at 3:02.

"It's one of the things we wanted to work on," said Braden Holtby, who stopped 20 shots and is 10-1-2 for his career against Montreal. "Obviously it’s good to do it. It's even better that we were able to put our mind to fixing a problem and turning it into a positive. That's one of our strengths now.

"In this league, you never know what the game's going to be like and it could be low-scoring, so that first goal is huge for the rest of the game. We've been doing a good job of preparing to come out of the gates hot."

Alexander Radulov's 13th goals of the season tied it 4 1/2 minutes later. Phillip Danault prevented the Capitals from clearing it at the blue line and Pacioretty blocked another attempt that went back to Danault, who dished off to Radulov in the slot.

Burakovsky made it 2-1 for Washington on the power play at 9:26 of the second period. Brett Connolly drove up the left side before sending a cross-ice feed to Burakovsky, alone in the right circle.

"That's been key to our success, when teams our shutting down some of our other lines, the Eller line or the Beagle line steps up," said coach Barry Trotz, who moved past Dick Irvin into sixth place on the NHL's all-time coaching list with 693 career wins.

"That's been our secret, the depth of our team. Those guys step up when the other guys are getting shut down."

Radulov thought he had his second of the day a few minutes later, but it was immediately waved off for goaltender interference.

Backstrom put the Capitals up by two on the power play at 5:16 of the third period. Patient passing between the Washington pivot and defenseman Matt Niskanen ended with Backstrom firing a shot through bodies past Price.

"Special teams are a big part, no matter what game it is," said Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry, who team went 0-for-3 with the man advantage. "We have to find a way to score goals on the power play and prevent them on the penalty kill.

"The easiest way on the PK is to stay out of the box. We need to continue doing a better job at that and on the power play, just generate shots and get pucks to the net with bodies there."

Pacioretty cut into the Capitals' lead two and a half minutes later when he took Radulov's backhand feed and sent it past Holtby.

Galchenyuk had the Canadiens' best chance to tie in the third with a shot from the right circle on but was robbed by Holtby.

Carey Price made 27 saves for the Canadiens.

Phillip Danault of Montreal left the game in the third period because of an upper body injury and is questionable for Sunday's game against the Edmonton Oilers.

NOTES: Montreal D Andrei Markov played in his 962nd career NHL game, moving past Guy Lafleur into eighth place on the Canadiens' all-time list. ... Canadiens C Tomas Plekanec played in career game No. 896, tying Patrice Brisebois for 12th on the franchise's all-time list. ... Capitals D John Carlson appeared in his 500th NHL game, becoming the 12th defenseman in franchise history to reach the mark. ... Canadiens RW/LW Sven Andrighetto was back after sitting out Thursday's game as a healthy scratch, while C David Desharnais and D Greg Pateryn were scratched. ... Washington scratched LW Jakub Vrana and D Taylor Chorney.