MONTREAL -- The Edmonton Oilers, looking for a spark early in games, found one from an unlikely source on Saturday.

Forward Jujhar Khaira scored two goals and Laurent Brossoit made 22 saves to spur the Oilers to a 6-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday, handing the Canadiens their third loss in a row.

Michael Cammalleri, Milan Lucic, Oscar Klefbom and Yohann Auvitu also scored for the Oilers (12-15-2), who won for the fifth time in eight games (5-3-0). They were dressed down by coach Todd McLellan at practice Thursday, the morning after a 4-2 loss at home to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Oilers captain Connor McDavid had two assists.

Khaira, a 23-year-old native of Surrey, B.C., has three goals and two assists in four games since he was a scratch in back-to-back games.

"I think it's just confidence," Khaira, who last season became the third player of Punjabi Indian descent to score a goal, joining Robin Bawa and Manny Malhotra. "I know I can play in this league. It always takes a little time to figure it out. You play little stints the last couple of years, but being on the team regularly, it's definitely different. Over time I think I'm slowly learning and getting a lot of help from the coaches and players."

Khaira was the Oilers' third-round pick (No. 63) in the 2012 NHL Draft. He played 15 games two years ago and 10 games last season. He's been a scratch for 13 games this season.

"I think a lot of it is confidence," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "He worked extremely hard at training camp and he earned a spot, he earned every minute he could get and then when the season started, he took a deep breath and it caught up to him. He needed to be reminded and now he's back to that grinding, work ethic, protect the puck style and (as) a result he's scoring and we have a ton of confidence in him."

Alex Galchenyuk and Phillip Danault scored for the Canadiens (13-14-4). Carey Price allowed four goals on 14 shots and was replaced by Antti Niemi at 2:24 of the second period. Niemi allowed two goals on 26 shots. After winning five games in a row, the Canadiens are 0-2-1.

After Cammalleri gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 7:46 of the first period, Khaira scored at 11:37 of the first and at 1:11 of the second period to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead. Lucic scored on the power play 1:13 after Khaira scored (ending an 0-for-16 stretch with the man-advantage). It was the 11th time this season the Canadiens have given up two goals in less than a minute.

It was a rare good start for the Oilers, meanwhile, who have scored the first goal just 11 times in 29 games.

"It's a big win for us especially the last few games our starts haven't been very good, and coming into a building like this on Hockey Night in Canada and getting the first goal, I thought we responded very well from last game," Khaira said. "We built off everything we did early in this game, got the first one and kept going."

The Canadiens have one game left on their five-game homestand, Thursday against the New Jersey Devils. After a promising start with a 10-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings, they lost to the St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames and now the Oilers.

"A game like tonight, you know how Detroit felt when we beat them 10-1? We kind of feel a little bit like that tonight," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "It's not a fun loss.

"We had a good stretch there and this week has been a tough week for us. At the end of the day we have to be better than we were tonight. We weren't good after they scored those two quick goals. Our execution and everything just got worse and worse as the game went on."

When asked about how he reacted to Julien's decision to take him out of the game, a curt Price replied: "Well, I didn't wake up this morning hoping to get pulled."

NOTES: Edmonton D Brandon Davidson, picked up from the Canadiens on waivers Dec. 3, played his first game for the Oilers. ... Injured for the Oilers were G Cam Talbot (upper body), D Andrej Sekera (knee) and D Adam Larsson (upper body). ... Montreal D Victor Mete, 19, was scratched for the second game in a row, the first time that has happened this season. He has been scratched for three of the Canadiens' past six games. He is a candidate to be sent to play for Canada at the World Junior Championship in Buffalo Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Buffalo. ... Montreal C Jonathan Drouin returned to the lineup after missing four games because of a lower-body injury and illness. ... Also injured for the Canadiens were RW Ales Hemsky (concussion), LW Artturi Lehkonen (lower body), G Al Montoya (concussion) and RW Nikita Scherbak (knee). ... Cammalleri has had a hot hand against his former team. Three of his four goals have been against the Canadiens for whom he played from 2009-12. He had two goals and two assists against the Canadiens Oct. 18 while playing for the Los Angeles Kings. The Oilers acquired him from the Kings for Jussi Jokinen Nov. 14.