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Shea Weber #6 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates his first goal of the season with teammates during the NHL game against the Arizona Coyotes at the Bell Centre on October 20, 2016 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Carey Price made 27 saves in his much-anticipated season debut as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Arizona Coyotes 5-2 on Thursday night.

Alexei Emelin, Torrey Mitchell, Shea Weber, Alex Galchenyuk and Artturi Lehkonen scored for Montreal (3-0-1).

Jakob Chychrun and Laurent Dauphin scored for the visiting Coyotes (1-2-0).

Playing for the injured Mike Smith, backup goaltender Louis Domingue conceded four goals on 19 shots before being pulled in the second period. Justin Peters stopped 23-of-24 shots in relief.

Price made his first NHL start since injuring his right knee on Nov. 25, 2015. The 29-year-old also missed the first three games of this season with a severe flu. Montreal went 2-0-1 without him.

Price wasn't tested much in the opening frame. The Habs netminder eased back into NHL action by making eight fairly easy saves in the first period. He didn't face a shot until 6:30 into the encounter.

Things weren't as smooth in the second. A sprawled-out Price was helpless against Chychrun at 6:36 for Arizona's first of the night to make it 4-1. Then Price conceded again at 16:09, a short-handed goal for the Coyotes, after a bad giveaway by Nathan Beaulieu in his own zone.

But those were the only times Arizona would find the back of the net, as Price improved to 8-0-0 in his career against the Coyotes.

Montreal put the game out of reach with three goals in less than four minutes in the second period.

Mitchell made it 2-0 with a one-timer at 2:07 off a beautiful cross-ice pass from Beaulieu. Weber then scored his first in a Canadiens uniform two minutes later with a hard slap shot through traffic.

Galchenyuk dangled around Arizona captain Shane Doan at the blue line before beating Domingue with a wrister at 5:49 to make it 4-0.

Despite conceding two goals in the second, Montreal hardly showed signs of slowing down as the home side kept cycling the puck extremely well.

The consistent effort paid off again in the third period when Lehkonen, left all alone in the slot, fired home his second of the season past Peters to make it 5-2.

Emelin opened the score for the Canadiens at 13:20 of the first period. Using Andrew Shaw as a screen, Emelin beat Domingue with a slap shot between pad and blocker.

The goal was Emelin's first since Mar. 17, 2015.

Notes: Habs defenceman Zach Redmond broke his foot during practice Thursday morning. He will be out six weeks. The Habs outshot their opponent for the first time this season.

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