MONTREAL -- Slow starts have been a problem of late for the Arizona Coyotes. But on this night, the shoe was on the other foot.

The Coyotes scored early and took a lead they would never relinquish in a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night at the Bell Centre.

"We had a lot better start," said goaltender Mike Smith, who made 32 saves for the Coyotes. "To get up in the game in the first period was something we talked about, having a lot better start of the games. It always helps when you play with the lead."

Center Martin Hanzal, right winger Shane Doan and defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for Arizona, which has won three straight road games in Canada to begin a season for the first time since 1981.

Left winger Max Pacioretty and right winger Dale Weise connected for the Canadiens (14-4-2) while Mike Condon stopped 17 shots.

"They got a couple of breaks early and then I thought we took over the game," Weise said. "They just defended well. We had some chances on the power play and if we'd scored on them, could have changed the game."

Hanzal got the scoring started at 5:04 of the first period. The puck bounced over right winger Brendan Gallagher's stick in the neutral zone and left winger Anthony Duclair scooped it up, skating into the Canadiens zone and going for the wraparound on Condon. The Montreal netminder made the save but the puck was loose to his right, where Hanzal poked it in for his fourth of the season and team-leading 14th point on the road.

It snapped a streak of six straight games in which the Coyotes fell behind to start the game.

Doan made it 2-0 just over four minutes later. With Arizona skating in 3-on-2, center Tobias Rieder shot from outside the left circle. Condon stopped the shot but couldn't control the direction of the rebound, which bounced out to Doan at the right hashmarks. The Coyotes captain got a quick stick on it to send it to the back of the net.

Ekman-Larsson extended the visitors' lead on the power play at 3:51 of the second. When the Canadiens couldn't clear the zone, left winger Mikkel Boedker started off some quick passing that wound up in a scramble in front. The puck bounced out to Ekman-Larsson in the slot and the defenseman fired it home, extending his point streak to seven games.

It marked the third game in a row that Montreal has trailed 3-0.

"It's just something we have to correct," Gallagher said of the Canadiens' sudden penchant for falling behind. "It's not one specific thing; it starts with the little details -- executing, playing our hockey and getting off to better starts. That's what we were doing earlier in the year."

Pacioretty got the Canadiens on the board at 15:59. Gallagher corralled a loose puck behind the net and lobbed a pass out to the middle of the zone. Pacioretty was first to it at the top of the slot before beating Smith with a backhand shot.

Weise cut the deficit to one when, with the Canadiens' net empty, he tipped in defenseman Andrei Markov's shot from outside the top of the circle at 19:09.

"We made it a little hard on ourselves at the end there but I thought in the second period, we had some great chances," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "We could have pushed it to 4-0 and then we had a turnover that led to a goal against late in the second and then took a penalty that led to some momentum, but we hung in there in the third. I give our guys credit."

NOTES: Montreal made one change to its lineup. RW Alexander Semin was scratched and LW Paul Byron drew back in after sitting two games as a healthy scratch. The Canadiens also scratched D Jarred Tinordi. D Alexei Emelin missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury. ... The Coyotes scratched LW John Scott and D Stefan Elliott. ... Arizona RW Steve Downie remained day to day with an upper-body injury. He missed his fourth straight game. ... Earlier in the day, Montreal took G Carey Price off injured reserve and put Emelin on IR. ... The Canadiens and Jets/Coyotes franchise met for the 69th time in history.