Jacob Fowler made 35 saves in his NHL debut, leading the visiting Montreal Canadiens to a 4-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday evening.
Alexandre Texier, Brendan Gallagher, Cole Caufield and Oliver Kapanen scored, while Lane Hutson and Juraj Slafkovsky each had two assists for the Canadiens, who ended a two-game skid.
Bryan Rust had a goal and an assist, Erik Karlsson also scored and Tristan Jarry made 25 saves for the Penguins, who have lost three in a row (0-1-2).
Penguins defenseman Kris Letang partially whiffed on a clearing attempt and Texier took possession, skating to the top of the right circle before scoring with a wrist shot over Jarry’s glove for a 1-0 lead at 2:54 of the first period.
Fowler, the NHL’s first-ever Florida-born goalie, didn’t make his first save until 9:48 of the first period, when the Penguins were on a power play.
Gallagher made it 2-0 at 4:37 of the second with a snap shot from the left circle off the rush.
The Canadiens were on their second power play when Caufield banked the puck off Jarry’s skates from below the goal line to extend the lead to 3-0 at 10:18.
Owen Beck appeared to score his first NHL goal for the Canadiens with 3:39 left in the second period, but Pittsburgh challenged for offside and the goal was waived off following a video review.
The Penguins prevented Fowler from becoming the first NHL goalie since Montreal’s current starter, Jakub Dobes, to notch a shutout in his NHL debut when Rust scored 44 seconds into the third off a short feed from Sidney Crosby to cut it to 3-1.
Montreal answered 15 seconds later when Kapanen finished a centering pass from Slafkovsky to push the lead to 4-1.
Entering with the league’s top power play (32.4 percent), Pittsburgh could not take advantage of a 5-on-3 that lasted 25 seconds, but Karlsson cut it to 4-2 at 15:07 when the Penguins went on their sixth power play and pulled Jarry for a 6-on-4 advantage.
