MONTREAL -- Alex Radulov spent the week at home, recovering from an illness. He returned Saturday night and didn't miss a beat.

The skilled winger picked up a pair of assists to help the Montreal Canadiens to a 2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre.

The two helpers extended his point streak to six games and moved him into the team lead with 13 assists. He also sits three points behind center Alex Galchenyuk, whose 19 points sit atop the Montreal roster.

"It's not only on the ice but off the ice," said defenseman Shea Weber, who also picked up two assists. "I think all of us have been around people that have that energy and that upbeat, positive attitude, and I think guys feed off that.

"It's not an act; it's just who he is."

Carey Price made 31 saves for Montreal (14-3-2). Frederik Andersen stopped 27 shots for the Maple Leafs.

Paul Byron and Alex Galchenyuk scored for the Canadiens and William Nylander replied for the Maple Leafs (8-7-3), who have lost 12 straight to the Canadiens.

"I expected us to come here and win; they played back-to-back," Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. "We had an opportunity and in the end, we didn't execute. ... You set expectations for yourself in life and if you set high expectations, you have a chance to reach them. If you don't you settle for second-best. To me, we've got to get into the mindset that we should be coming in here to win."

Byron pulled into a share of the Canadiens' team lead in goals with his seventh of the season at 15:45 of the first period. Alexander Radulov took a hit as he dished off to Weber at the blue line. Weber fired a blast and Byron was in front to poke home the rebound.

"It was a plan to go and try to play fast against those defensemen," Radulov said. "We put the puck deep and Paulie put it behind the net, and I just went there and picked it up. I saw Webby but there was a guy going to hit me. Sometimes you have to take a hit to make a play and that's what I tried to do. Webby made a good shot and there were guys in front battling for the loose puck."

The Canadiens wasted little time as the second period started to double their lead. Montreal drew a penalty 27 seconds into the period and five seconds later, Radulov fed Galchenyuk in the left circle for the one-timer.

The physicality picked up along the way, with the Leafs and Canadiens exchanging hits in a matter of minutes, including a Weber hit along the boards on Nylander that got the crowd roaring.

"Physicality was definitely there," said Nazem Kadri who dished out and was on the receiving end during that sequence. "Obviously it's a pretty passionate game, pretty emotional game. It was played with high intensity; it was a good game to watch and unfortunately we came out on the wrong end."

The power play helped the Maple Leafs get on the board at 8:47. Auston Matthews found Komarov on the left side of the crease and Komarov quickly sent a cross-ice feed to Nylander, who made no mistake tapping it home from the bottom of the right circle. It snapped an 0 for 8 drought for Toronto with the man-advantage.

Nylander nearly had his second goal of the night in the third period, but Price denied the Maple Leafs rookie. Toronto had another chance shortly thereafter when Price thought he made the save, but the puck squeaked through and was quickly cleared by Montreal.

"Carey played a pretty good game," Kadri said. "He kind of held them in it while we pushed back but we just couldn't seem to find enough to win the game."

NOTES: Montreal LW Max Pacioretty played his 500th NHL game. ... Canadiens RW Alexander Radulov returned after missing the last two games with illness while D Joel Hanley drew in after sitting two contests as a healthy scratch. ... Montreal scratched LW Daniel Carr and D Greg Pateryn. ... The Maple Leafs scratched C Peter Holland, D Martin Marincin and D Frank Corrado. ... The game was Toronto's second and final visit to Montreal this season. ... It was the 734th all-time meeting between the two historic rivals. ... Montreal closed out its fourth of 15 sets of back-to-back games this season and its third in as many weekends.