MONTREAL — Alexander Radulov knows how to make a first impression.

In his much-anticipated Canadiens debut, Radulov scored and added an assist to lead Montreal to a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals in NHL pre-season action on Tuesday.

"It's always fun to score, I'm not going to lie," said Radulov after seeing his first NHL action since 2012. "Especially with that many fans cheering for you. Even if it's an exhibition game, it's still nice to get the confidence going."

Radulov wasted no time getting his first goal in a Canadiens uniform, scoring on the power play at 4:12 of the first period to put Montreal up 1-0.

The Russian, who signed a one-year contract with Montreal in the off-season, got the blade of his stick on Greg Pateryn's shot from the point to deflect the puck past Washington goaltender Vitek Vanecek.

"Everybody wants to prove (themselves)," said Radulov, who has 47 goals in 154 NHL regular-season games. "This is the time to show what you can do. That's why the game was going really fast. It was intense. Everyone was going hard."

The 30-year-old veteran, who played the last four seasons with CSKA Moscow in the KHL, also got an assist on Nathan Beaulieu's goal later that period.

With the Canadiens again on the power play, the former Nashville Predator and QMJHL star made a spectacular pass to Beaulieu from one face-off circle to the other. With Vanecek out of position, Beaulieu slotted home his first of the pre-season.

Montreal finished 2 for 6 with the man advantage.

Head coach Michel Therrien had nothing but praise for Radulov.

"He played a great game," said Therrien. "One thing that's clear is that he came to play hockey. He was intense and his plays were beautiful. He really took control of that game.

"It was fun to see."

With most of Montreal's veterans out of the lineup, the Canadiens (1-1-0) got a big offensive boost from several unheralded players.

Torrey Mitchell scored twice, Beaulieu added three assists along with his goal while Greg Pateryn also had three helpers.

Goalie Al Montoya, also making his first appearance with Montreal, made seven saves on eight shots. His replacement Zachary Fucale turned away eight shots in relief.

The game was chippy and penalty-filled, with both teams combining for more than 50 penalty minutes.

The bad blood reached its boiling point late in the second period when Andrew Shaw knocked Connor Hobbs face-first into the end boards.

Caps forward Nathan Walker took exception to the hit and dropped the gloves with Shaw.

"A hit like that, you have to do something about that," said Walker. "I don't think that was a clean hit by any means and so I stuck up for Hobbs.

"I just saw (the hit) out of the corner of my eye, but when you hear the boards smack like that and you see him face down, you know it's not a good sign."

The Habs winger was given 20 penalty minutes on the play and a game misconduct. The Capitals (0-1-1) bench was visibly irate as Shaw skated past them to the dressing room.

"The most important thing is that the player wasn't hurt," said Therrien. "Even if it was a pre-season game, (Shaw) was clearly playing with a lot of emotion, which is completely normal."

Down 2-0, Washington's Marcus Johansson got one back for the visitors at 9:13 of the second period before Paul Byron answered right back with a breakaway goal 11 seconds later.

Mitchell made it 4-1 for Montreal at 16:13 of the second. The 31-year-old added his second of the evening late in the third period to put the game out of Washington's reach.

Zachary Sanford scored a consolation goal for the Caps at 15:57.

Vanecek stopped 24-of-29 shots.