MONTREAL -- Jeff Petry was in the midst of a dry spell offensively for the better part of November and early December. A meeting with his coach changed all that.

Petry scored a goal for a third straight game and recorded two assists Tuesday night to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at the Bell Centre. He has seven points in his past five games.

"I went through a little bit of a down spell for a few games there and had a meeting with (assistant coach) J.J. (Daigneault)," Petry said. "He just said, when you're on top of your game, you're skating, playing physical. My focus was to get back to doing that and it's been paying off."

The offensive boost comes at a perfect time for Montreal (21-7-4), which played without veteran defenseman Andrei Markov -- Petry's blue line partner -- because of a lower-body injury.

Petry's goal was the first of three the Canadiens put past netminder Jonathan Bernier in the third period. The Laval, Quebec, native won only once in 13 career appearances against his hometown team.

"We didn't have a lot of jump tonight," said Bernier, who stopped 29 shots. "I turned the puck over on the third one and then it just kind of went south. We stopped playing our structure, and they scored five."

Paul Byron, Tomas Plekanec, Max Pacioretty and Chris Terry also scored for the Canadiens.

Andrew Cogliano scored the lone goal for Anaheim.

Montreal's Carey Price stopped 12 shots after the Canadiens allowed only 21 against on Saturday night against Washington.

"Everyone's working hard and we're not giving up a lot of chances," Byron said. "We played a smart game. We're playing against good teams and you don't want to give them space or chances to score."

Cogliano opened the scoring off a faceoff at 5:19 of the first period. Ryan Kesler got tangled up with Montreal's Torrey Mitchell on the draw, with neither able to get the puck to a teammate. Cogliano found the loose puck among a sea of skates and fired it short side on Price.

Byron matched a career high with his 11th of the season with a minute remaining in the first. Petry drove down the left wing, creating a 2-on-1 with the speedy winger, and wired a shot that Bernier stopped. But the rebound went to Byron on the right side and Bernier was late in trying to dive over, leaving a wide-open cage.

Byron reached his personal best in in his 32nd game after setting the mark last season in 62 contests with Montreal.

The Canadiens' struggling power play finally connected to put the Canadiens ahead 2-1 at 12:35 of the second. Byron surprised the Ducks with a pass from the left circle to Plekanec on the other side, and the center was ready, sending a one-timer past Bernier.

The Ducks had an opportunity for the equalizer with a power play from the drop of the puck on the third period. But the NHL's second-ranked power play, which had connected in four of its previous five games, was denied on three opportunities, failing to record even a shot on goal.

"That was a chance for us to regroup and give ourselves a chance with at least some momentum but we got no momentum off of it at all," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "It was kind of like a deflator for us. Then the piling on started in the third."

A poor clearing attempt by Anaheim set the table for Petry's seventh of the season. Bernier tried to rim the puck around the boards but Nick Ritchie, along the left wall, couldn't get his stick on it. It went to Petry at the blue line, who scored his fourth goal in the past five games at 4:32 of the third period.

Pacioretty notched Montreal's second power-play goal of the night just over four minutes later when on a 2-on-1, he sent a wrister from the right circle. It marked the first time since Nov. 22 that the Canadiens scored twice with the man advantage.

Terry scored his first in a Montreal uniform when he lifted a shot over Bernier from in close.

NOTES: Ducks C Andrew Cogliano suited up for his 738th consecutive game, passing Jay Bouwmeester for the fifth-longest streak in NHL history and the longest of any kind since Steve Larmer dressed in his 884th straight on April 15, 1993. ... Montreal D Andrei Markov missed the game with a lower-body injury suffered on Saturday in Washington, marking the first time since 2011-12 that he's sat out a game due to injury. ... Canadiens RW Sven Andrighetto missed his second straight with an upper-body injury. ... With Markov out, D Zach Redmond drew back into the lineup after sitting as a healthy scratch Saturday. ... Anaheim scratched RW Jared Boll and D Shea Theodore.