MONTREAL -- The San Jose Sharks are making themselves at home on the road so far this season, a run that helped them snap a six-game slide.

Taking advantage of their chances, the Sharks scored late in the first period and never looked back in a 3-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday at the Bell Centre.

San Jose (15-14-1) improved its road record to 11-5-1, a sharp contrast to its 4-9-0 output on home ice.

"It's huge," said Sharks defenseman Justin Braun, who picked up a pair of assists. "The Pacific's getting a little bunched up. We've got to get some points and get rolling again. It's tough to lose that many in a row, but we've just got to go back the other way and get that many wins."

Centers Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski and Dainius Zubrus scored for San Jose while right winger Dale Weise scored for Montreal (20-9-3).

Goaltender Martin Jones made 26 saves for the Sharks. Habs goalie Dustin Tokarski stopped nine of 12 shots before being replaced by Mike Condon, who made six saves in relief.

For the second consecutive game, the Canadiens were in control in the first period. Unlike Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, however, it was their opponent that struck first.

Braun lifted the puck out of the Sharks' end into the neutral zone, where right winger Joel Ward picked it up before breaking in on a two-on-one with Marleau. Ward sent a cross-seam feed to Marleau at the bottom of the circle, where he easily poked it past Tokarski at 17:34. It was just the third shot of the period for San Jose.

"We got off to a really good start," Weise said. "We were playing well, but we just couldn't find the back of the net. We gifted them three goals. That's extremely frustrating when you're playing well and you give up goals like that."

The ice was barely dry when Pavelski doubled the visitors' lead 36 seconds into the middle frame. Montreal's soft clearing attempt wound up on Braun's stick at the right point. Braun settled the puck and then took a shot that deflected off Pavelski's stick into the net.

Zubrus made it 3-0 San Jose at 9:19 of the second period. Center Joe Thornton took advantage of another soft play by the Canadiens deep in their own end to force a turnover behind the net. Pavelski picked up the puck at the goal line to Tokarski's right before feeding an uncovered Zubrus at the hashmarks.

That chased Tokarski from the net.

Weise snapped an 11-game goal drought to get the Canadiens on the board at 17:24. Defenseman P.K. Subban rushed the puck out of Montreal's zone, up the ice and into the Sharks' end before lobbing a light pass over to Weise. The winger caught it and quickly dropped it before firing glove side from the dot to beat Jones.

An early-third-period power play presented the Canadiens with an opportunity to cut the deficit, but the suddenly struggling man advantage didn't generate much.

"We have so many excuses where we say the puck's not going in, but sometimes you've got to look in the mirror," captain Max Pacioretty said of the Montreal power play, which is now 0-for-18 over the past six games. "Yeah, we definitely moved the puck well on the power play in the third period, but you just can't say after every game that it's bad luck because eventually something's not clicking. We've to go figure it out."

On the other side, Sharks coach Peter DeBoer was pleased with his team's play.

"Getting the first goal for us was important," DeBoer said. "We haven't been getting that, and we found a way to score the first goal. Our goaltender, when we got on our heels, he weathered the storm.

"I really liked our second period. I thought we could have had a couple more, and I thought Montreal's goalie made some big saves to keep the game close at that point. In the third period, they poured it on, and we found a way to hang on."

NOTES: Sharks C Tomas Hertl was a late scratch with a lower-body injury, while D Matt Tennyson was also scratched. ... San Jose LW Matt Nieto returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games with a lower-body injury. ... Montreal C Brian Flynn suited up for his 200th NHL game. ... Canadiens C Tomas Plekanec played in his 793rd career NHL game, moving him into sole possession of 20th place on the team's all-time games played list. ... Montreal scratched LW Charles Hudon, D Jarred Tinordi and D Greg Pateryn. ... Prior to the game, the Canadiens traded RW Christian Thomas to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for F Lucas Lessio. ... The game was the first of a five-game road trip for San Jose.