After four straight road wins, the Montreal Canadiens returned to the Bell Centre on Halloween night to host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Going into the game, the Pens had one road win: a 7-0 massacre against the ailing Philadelphia Flyers. However, they had won their last two games before getting four days off and losing to the Utah Mammoth on the road on Thursday.

Jacob Fowler was back in net after Jakub Dobes beat the Dallas Stars on Thursday, and at the other end of the ice, Sergei Murashov faced the Habs for the first time. While the Canadiens were still without captain Nick Suzuki and Ivan Demidov, both are progressing well in their recovery and inching closer to a return. As for Samuel Montembeault, he’s now considered day-to-day, while Mike Matheson will be out for the next two weeks. Meanwhile, Kirby Dach was a late scratch as he was under the weather.

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After going pointless in his last 16 regular-season games going back to last season, Oliver Kapanen scored the Canadiens’ first goal of the night on a perfectly timed one-timer. The lamplighter was no doubt met with a huge sigh of relief by the Finn, who was demoted to the fourth line.

However, playing with two young guys as energetic and engaged as Owen Beck and Florian Xhekaj, who each had three hits, is hardly a punishment. The line gelled right away and was highly efficient on the forecheck. Although Kapanen scored on a great breakout play, Xhekaj launched it with a long zone-exit pass to Beck, who then sent it across the zone for the Finn. A play that didn’t go unnoticed by Martin St-Louis:

We got a big play from our young line: a great zone exit, tape-to-tape-to-tape, and in the net; it let us breathe, and we got going. We had a really good period after that.

That was just one of four first-frame goals. There were three goals in the first three minutes, and the Pens had two goals on five shots in under eight minutes. However, in the remaining 12 minutes and change, they were only allowed to test Fowler once; the period ended 2-2, but the Habs had 14 shots to 6.

If Fowler has been on fire since he was recalled from the Laval Rocket, he certainly wasn’t tonight. By the time the Pens scored their third goal, they had taken only eight shots on net in a little under 24 minutes of play.

The American netminder wasn’t that much busier by the end of the middle stanza, at least until the dying seconds. With 12 seconds left, he was forced to make three big saves, and he managed to freeze the puck with Crosby desperately trying to get his stick on the rebound.

As good as Fowler has been so far this season, goalies can have games where they struggle a bit; it’s part of the development curve and the game. While youngsters can struggle with consistency, nobody is immune to a bad night in net; even the great ones have had them. It may be a bit harder for less experienced goaltenders because it can, whether you want it or not, affect their confidence. But that’s not an area where Fowler normally struggles.

After those big saves, he looked refocused and played a strong third frame, helping the Canadiens win 5-4.

Owen Beck didn’t deserve to be scratched after the game in Chicago, but he still was and he wasn’t mad about it:

I wouldn’t say pissed; I’m just rolling with the punches. I’m just ready whenever my name’s called. I just want to bring my best every night that I’m in the lineup. Hopefully, eventually, carve out a role for myself.

If that role involves dropping the gloves, the forward has no issues with it, and he did just that tonight. In a shift in which he landed a big hit, veteran Blake Lizotte invited him to dance, and he was happy to oblige, even getting the upper hand. The funny thing about that fight, though, was that both Xhekaj brothers were on the ice when it happened: “Yeah, they didn’t want it tonight; thought I’d let them have a night off,” he joked.

After being sent to the box, Lizotte and Beck were exchanging words, and while it could have looked like chirping from afar, it wasn’t, far from it:

Yeah, he just said, you know, good job, good fight, mutual respect kind of thing. He was saying he needed one or whatever; I guess it was a good time for both of us.

St-Louis liked what he saw from Beck tonight:

He’s combative; he looks like an NHL player. You look at how he played in Chicago; I know there were three games he wasn’t dressed after, but that wasn’t about his play. He’s knocking on the door; he brings a lot: intensity, speed, physicality. He can play hockey too; he’s got a good shot. He made an excellent play on Kapi’s goal. He’s doing well.

The newly formed line of Josh Anderson, Jake Evans and Chris Kreider also had a good night; the new arrival was plus-4, just like Evans, while Anderson was plus-3. Kreider had five shots on the night, the most he has had in a game with the Habs, and he finished with a goal and an assist. Clearly, playing with Evans helped the two wingers; he’s got a tremendous knack for adapting to his linemates’ style.

It wasn’t a perfect game from the Canadiens, far from it, but they still found a way to get a fifth win in a row, and they did it with their first line being held off the scoresheet and being a collective minus-6 on the night. The Habs will enjoy a day off tomorrow before returning to practice in Brossard on Monday. Montreal’s next game will be Tuesday night at the Bell Centre against the Winnipeg Jets, wearing its Hometown Remix jersey.

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