A late-game turnover sunk a punchless Montreal Canadiens as Joel Ward broke Carey Price's shutout with 1:29 remaining in the third period to help send the visiting Washington Capitals a 2-0 win in Montreal Sunday.

Ward scored after Andre Burakovsky swooped in on a puck that escaped P.K. Subban in the corner. Burakovsky passed in front to a streaking Ward while Alex Galchenyuk, playing centre, was too far back to block the effort.

“I didn’t do my job in either moving the puck or eating it," Subban told CTV Montreal after the game. “But the good thing is that it’s the preseason, so we'll just move onto the next game.”

Brooks Laich scored the empty net goal with 39 seconds remaining on assists by Nicklas Backstrom and John Carlson.

The Canadiens, playing their third game in four nights, iced a mostly-veteran lineup but could only muster 18 shots against the Capitals, who are now coached by defensively-minded Barry Trotz. Justin Peters turned back seven shots, while Braden Holtby also stopped 11 to combine for the Washington shutout.

Price was the busier of the netminders, with 29 saves in his first competitive action since suffering injury in last spring's playoffs against the Rangers.

Jarred Tinordi was ejected from the game with a match penalty after a hit on Nate Schmidt, which was judged to have been a headshot, a verdict which was the talk of the dressing room after the game.

P.K. Subban defended his fellow-blueliner in an interview after the game. "I don't think he got his elbow up. He's a big guy. He can throw his weight around. You can see his development as he starts to get more comfortable out there."

Habs Max Pacioretty and Dale Weise also told reporters after the game that they thought that the hit was clean. Tinordi did not speak to reporters.

Coach Michel Therrien said afterwards that he thought Tinordi's hit on Schmidt was not intentional. "Tinner just tried to finish hit hit. He's 6'6" and he hit a smaller guy."

CTV Montreal's Brian Wilde reported after the game that Schmidt did not suffer any symptoms of serious injury after the hit.

Capitals Coach Barry Trotz thought that the bodycheck helped his squad.

“That hit sparked our team, I had no doubt we’d win after that,” said Trotz who praised tough guy Chris Brown for fighting Tinordi after the play. “I loved that Brown came to Schmidt’s defence.”

Price solid

Carey Price offered a strong performance in his first full game back after suffering a lower-body injury at the hands of New York Rangers' Chris Kreider in the East Conference finals last spring.

Price made some good stops, including one on Alexander Ovechkin on a power play and another on Nathan Walker in the second period. Price also stymied the Caps on their power play following the Tinordi penalty, stopping four good chances, including difficult saves on Ward and Jason Chimera.

“It’s nice to get a full workload, to see some shots and work on your timing a little bit. It’s something that really leaves you during the summertime, that’s probably the hardest thing to get back, it’s the pace of the game. You skate all summer but it’s different,” said Price to a scrum of reporters following the game.

Learning process

Therrien was asked about Galchenyuk, who has been playing at the centre position this camp. "It's a learning process for Alex. He did well on some plays and on others he was searching. That's what training camp is for. We're giving them a chance to learn, that's why we played him at centre."

Jiri Sekac, the young Czech free agent who has impressed, was less noticable after standing out against Boston and Colorado. "Tonight was a little tougher for him. I've got to look at the big picture. He has certainly shown a lot of good things at training camp," said Therrien.

The Canadiens play three more preseason games: Wednesday in Chicago, Friday in Ottawa and then host the Senators again Saturday to complete the seven-game preseason schedule before starting the season in Toronto on Wednesday October 8.

The Canadiens reassigned 17 players prior to the game, including Nikita Scherbak and Magnus Nygren. More cuts are to come, as 35 players remain with the team.

The Canadiens are now 3-1 in the preseason after a win against Boston and a pair of victories over the Colorado Avalanche all by a score of 3-2.