ANAHEIM -- With four days to get ready for Friday night's game against the Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle did something unusual early in the week: He called off practice and took his team paintballing.

Perhaps Montreal coach Claude Julien should have his guys swap hockey sticks for paintball guns because not much else is working right now for the once-proud franchise.

The Ducks (3-3-1) bounced back from consecutive home losses with a 6-2 victory at Honda Center while the Canadiens (1-6-1) lost their seventh straight and are off to the club's worst eight-game start since 1941.

Ducks center Derek Grant scored the first two goals of his career, center Antoine Vermette added a goal and an assist and goaltender John Gibson finished with 49 saves to earn his third win of the season.

Montreal finished with a 51-45 advantage in shots on goal but was terribly outplayed in the first and third periods while making many of the same mistakes that have plagued them to start the season.

The Ducks, who again played without center Ryan Getzlaf (lower-body injury) and right winger Patrick Eaves (lower body), jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead on goals from centers Dennis Rasmussen, Grant and Vermette while repeatedly beating the Canadiens to the puck before peppering goaltender Carey Price.

Grant's goal was his first in 93 NHL games and Anaheim's first on the power play after an 0-for-21 start to the season.

"We played the game in three parts but like I told the team after the game, we'll take the positives out of it because that's the best start we've had this year," Carlyle said. "We're going to have to start more hockey games like that. I'm not suspecting we're scoring three goals in the first period every time, but we have to show that energy, that spark and that grittiness to go out and compete. Tonight was hopefully a sign of things to come."

After being outshot 21-7 in the first period, the Canadiens came out with much more energy to start the second and drew within 3-1 on a goal by left winger Paul Byron at 2:47. Montreal continued to create chances and made it 3-2 when right winger Brendan Gallagher scored a power-play goal by gathering a rebound and punching it past Gibson at 17:24.

The Canadiens finished the second period with a 30-10 advantage in shots on goal. The 28 saves by Gibson were the most by a Ducks goalie in a single period in franchise history.

"We found a way to get the win," said Gibson, whose career high for saves is 51 against Philadelphia last Jan. 1. "It was a desperate hockey game. We were desperate and they were desperate. Wasn't the prettiest but a win's a win."

Anaheim took a 4-2 lead at 5:58 of the third after a strange sequence during a delayed penalty on Montreal. Defenseman Kevin Bieksa wound up and took a slap shot from above the right circle but his stick snapped on contact and the puck slid over to defenseman Brandon Montour.

Montour gathered the puck as if it had come on an intentional pass and slapped a blast past Price. Grant's second goal of the game and one from left winger Chris Wagner followed in quick succession as the Ducks cruised to the comfortable win.

The six goals were a season high for the Ducks while the six goals allowed matched a season worst for the Canadiens. Montreal has a minus-20 goal differential on the season and the third-period meltdown seemed to perfectly illustrate what has gone wrong through eight games.

"To be quite honest, it's a shame on us," Gallagher said. "It's our job to play 60 minutes. There's no excuse to play a good second period and then come back out in the third and not have it. That's on us as a team. That's on us as leaders."

The third period also featured some rough stuff, including 10-minute misconduct penalties on Anaheim's Nick Ritchie and Bieksa and Montreal's Andrew Shaw, as well as two roughing calls on Bieksa and another on Shaw.

The frustration is obviously building for a Canadiens squad that knows it is digging the kind of hole that could be very difficult to get out from.

"It's very high, not going to lie," Julien said. "But as the same time, as frustrated as I am, I'm the one who's got to find some solutions here and turn things around. So I'll have to stay the course here and find that solution, it's part of my job. I can't be excused from what's happening because I am part of this group through thick and thin. I am a part of this group and I am going to take as much of the blame as anybody else."

NOTES: Anaheim D Cam Fowler suffered a lower-body injury in the first period and did not return. Coach Randy Carlyle said Fowler will have "an assessment" Saturday morning. ... Anaheim's D Sami Vatanen (shoulder) and D Hampus Lindholm (shoulder) did not play and remain day-to-day. ... Montreal's 30 shots in the second period were the most in a single period in franchise history. ... C Torrey Mitchell and D Brandon Davidson were scratches for Montreal.