The Montreal Canadiens won 4-2 on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, led by Jacob Fowler, who was incredible in his NHL debut, stopping 36 of the 38 shots he faced. Playing in front of Fowler also allowed the guys in front of him to play with more confidence and not need to worry as much about their mistakes, as Fowler made multiple spectacular saves on the night.
The Montreal Canadiens beat the Penguins 4–2.
-Jacob Fowler made 31 saves to earn his first career win.
Thoughts?
Les Canadiens de Montréal ont battu les Penguins 4–2.
Prochain match : Canadiens @ Rangers
Le 13 décembre à 19 h#GoHabsGo #thesickpodcast @TonyMarinaro pic.twitter.com/KkTnJtV55L
— The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro (@thesickpodcasts) December 12, 2025
By getting the win in his NHL debut against the Penguins, Fowler joins an elite group of goaltenders who made their NHL debut against Pittsburgh and got the win. Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy, and Carey Price all made their first career starts against the Penguins as well and got the win. Considering the irony of those players starting their NHL careers and securing a victory against the Penguins, it is almost as if it is written in the stars that a star goaltender with the Canadiens will always begin their career against Pittsburgh.
This is actually insane 🤯 pic.twitter.com/llpnlhqgcG
— NHL (@NHL) December 12, 2025
It was far from an easy night for Fowler, who had to make many spectacular saves on Sidney Crosby especially to help lead the Habs to their 9th win on the road of the season. Thankfully, unlike Jakub Dobes and Samuel Montembeault in Tuesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Fowler received a lot of help from his teammates on defence, who made many great plays to help keep the puck out of the net. However, some of the reasons that they played a more structured defensive game could be linked to the fact that the players felt more confident playing in front of someone who was feeling confident in themselves.
This Jacob Fowler kid seems pretty darn good, two HUGE stops to keep his shutout intact 😤❌ pic.twitter.com/HOSquOd6lr
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 12, 2025
It showed from the moment the puck dropped; the Habs were a much more confident team on Thursday playing with Fowler behind them. It wasn’t until a Penguins power play at 9:16 into the game that Fowler faced his first shot on goal. Before that, the Habs’ defence was blocking all shots heading towards their 20-year-old goaltender.
WHAT A SAVE…. by Lane Hutson? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/lVNgMZrxUx
— NHL (@NHL) December 12, 2025
Mike Matheson was particularly good at stopping prime opportunities from happening on Fowler; there were multiple occasions where he dove back and stopped shots from occurring. Meanwhile, Lane Hutson made an incredible save on Sidney Crosby, in street hockey goalie fashion, as he sprang into butterfly style, keeping the game 4-2 at the end of the game when the Penguins were pushing to come back late.
Coucou, c’est Texier
*Tex notification* “Alexandre scored”#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/lmjDkUZoNE
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 12, 2025
As for the offensive side of things, the Canadiens got on the board rather quickly thanks to Alexandre Texier’s first official goal as a Hab (he had a shootout goal last Saturday, but that doesn’t count in his stat category). The goal came as Texier stole the puck off Kris Letang in the offensive zone before he ripped the puck past Tristan Jarry, just 2:54 into the opening frame.
The Habs had a few other chances to make the game 2-0, including Brendan Gallagher, who channelled his 25-year-old self, where he won a race to the puck before dragging a defender on his back as he attempted to deke out Jarry.
Brendan Gallagher needed this goal so bad.
Good for him.
— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) December 12, 2025
While Gallagher didn’t score on his first high-danger chance, he would get another opportunity where he would make no mistake and put the Canadiens up 2-0. The play started out with Juraj Slafkovsky collecting a rebound in the defensive zone before he carried it up ice and passed it over to Hutson at the blue line, where he fed Gallagher with a perfect cross-ice pass to one-time the puck into the net from the left faceoff circle.
BANK SHOT 😲
Cole Caufield banks one in on the power-play to make it 3-0 Habs. pic.twitter.com/z8qgYdQhzZ
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 12, 2025
Then around the halfway mark of the period, the Habs would capitalize on the power play as Cole Caufield scored his 17th of the season after banking the puck off Jarry and in from the goal line. Goals from the goal line have really become Caufield’s specialty this season, as he seems to be able to put in the very little amount of room available by the post at a very effective rate.
Owen Beck’s first NHL goal is overturned due to offside 😟 pic.twitter.com/FlAgNGptG8
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 12, 2025
It appeared a few minutes later that the recently called-up Owen Beck had scored his first NHL goal to put the Canadiens up 4-0 after wiring a shot from just outside the right circle. Unfortunately, the Penguins chose to challenge the play for offside, and the goal was overturned, robbing Beck of his first NHL goal. In the play, it seemed too close to overturn, as Josh Anderson was likely offside by a couple of millimetres at most, if he even was, from the angles seen on TV, but maybe they saw a different and better angle. With that being said, normally the call on the ice should get the tiebreaker if it were too close to call; therefore, it feels as if a player’s first NHL goal was stolen from him.
As a result, the game would stay 3-0 Habs after 40 minutes of play. Of course, Fowler had to make a few stellar saves on the penalty kill, but he was up for the challenge as he stopped all 21 shots that went his way in the first two periods.
#87: Bryan Rust (9) pic.twitter.com/f5D6UflPmU
— nhlpens (@nhlpens) December 12, 2025
Unfortunately, the shutout wasn’t meant to be, as just 42 seconds into the period, Thomas Novak and Sidney Crosby would connect with Bryan Rust in the slot to get the Penguins on the board and cut the lead to 3-1.
– Juraj Slafkovsky is playing like a man possessed
– The Oliver Kapanen haters are in shambles pic.twitter.com/lcMp0cTDPr
— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) December 12, 2025
Luckily for the Habs, they would respond almost immediately, as 15 seconds later, Slafkovsky would find Oliver Kapanen in the slot with a perfect pass onto his tape to restore their 3-goal lead. Kapanen now has 10 goals on the year, which is currently 2nd behind only Caufield so far this season. He is also tied with Anaheim Ducks’ forward Beckett Sennecke for 1st in goals among rookies in the league thus far. Meanwhile, Ivan Demidov got the 2nd assist on the goal to give him his 24th point of the season, which is 2nd among rookies behind only Sennecke, who has 26.
After their 4th goal, the Canadiens got into some late penalty trouble but were able to kill most of the Penguins’ opportunities. However, with just under 5 minutes left and their goalie pulled and the Penguins on a 6-on-4 advantage, Erik Karlsson fired a seeing-eye shot past Fowler to cut the Habs’ lead to 4-2.
Erik Karlsson redonne un peu d’espoir aux Penguins!#GoHabsGo c. #LetsGoPens sur RDS 📺 pic.twitter.com/wXShzznVpg
— RDS (@RDSca) December 12, 2025
Despite the life they got from that goal, the Penguins weren’t able to get another marker, as the Canadiens and Fowler held on to beat the Penguins 4-2. The win ends the Habs’ 6-game losing streak to the Penguins, and they have now improved to 16-11-3 on the season.
While Fowler was no doubt the first star, the Canadiens as a whole played a very strong, responsible game for the most part and deserved their victory on Thursday night.
The Habs will be back in action on Saturday night in New York to take on the Rangers at 7:00 pm ET. With another back-to-back coming up this week, it will be interesting to see which goaltender plays against the Rangers on Saturday and who is in the nets on Sunday against the Edmonton Oilers. Surely, with Fowler’s play on Saturday, he will get one of them, but which one is the question?
Would you start Fowler against the Rangers or the Oilers this weekend?