MONTREAL — Being outnumbered didn’t faze the Wild.

Instead, it became their specialty.

Already down a forward because of recent injuries and a salary cap pinch, the Wild capitalized twice on the same penalty kill before their power play took over en route to a 5-2 win over the Canadiens on Tuesday at Bell Centre that included Kirill Kaprizov’s first goal of the season.

Kaprizov also picked up two assists, while his linemate Mats Zuccarello had three and Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice in front of a 27-save effort by Marc-Andre Fleury in his season debut.

At 545 victories, Fleury is seven away from surpassing Patrick Roy as the second-winningest goaltender in NHL history.

But the tone was set early by the Wild’s penalty killers.

With Ryan Hartman in the box for tripping, Brandon Duhaime tallied his second goal in as many games, flinging in a puck off the rush 9 minutes, 20 seconds into the first period.

On the next shift, Connor Dewar got a piece of a Duhaime rebound before a Montreal defender inadvertently put the puck behind goalie Sam Montembeault only 25 seconds after Duhaime scored.

These were the Wild’s first shorthanded goals of the season and the second-fastest pair in franchise history, behind the two Hartman and Sam Steel tallied 20 seconds apart last season.

After that, the power play stole the show.

Only 2:17 into the second, Eriksson Ek stuffed in his own rebound from in front of the net.

The Canadiens’ Tanner Pearson responded at 9:47 on Montreal’s first shot of the second, his wrister sailing past Fleury, but the Wild reclaimed control with the man advantage.

Kaprizov one-timed a Zuccarello cross-slot feed from a tight angle near the goal line with 2:38 to go in the second before Eriksson Ek jammed in a puck 5:20 into the third for his team-leading third goal. All three finishes have come on the power play, and this was only the second time in Eriksson Ek’s career that he’s converted on the power play more than once. Montembeault finished with 30 saves.

Overall, the Wild went 3-for-8 on the power play and a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill, with Fleury helping out both units; in what could end up as his last NHL game in his native Quebec, he pulled out a trademark windmill grab on a PK late in the second before he stacked his pads to keep out a try from the Canadiens while they were shorthanded early in the third.

The only other puck that eluded Fleury was a wind-up from Alex Newhook with 2:25 remaining.

Not only was this an improvement in light of the 7-4 fiasco to the Maple Leafs at the start of the road trip, but the Wild (2-1) rebounded with a depleted lineup.

They were without Matt Boldy, who suffered an upper-body injury in that loss at Toronto that will sideline him week to week. With defenseman Dakota Mermis the lone extra skater on the trip, the Wild still had enough players available until Alex Goligoski was hurt at practice on Monday. The Wild will get a better gauge on his lower-body injury after he’s evaluated when the team returns to Minnesota.

Since the Wild didn’t have enough cap space to recall a replacement from the minors, they dressed only 11 forwards and six defensemen.

But their manpower wasn’t an issue, not when this turned into a special-teams battle that the Wild won.