Montreal Canadiens ‘agitate’ hapless Penguins to remain unbeaten in NHL

Montreal remained without loss while Pittsburgh remained without victory on Tuesday night as the Canadiens orchestrated a 3-2 win that illustrated the Penguins' luckless early season form.

Tomas Plekanec, right, of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates a goal against the PIttsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night in his teams win in the NHL. Justin K Aller / Getty Images / AFP / October 13, 2015 Show more

The Montreal Canadiens remain perfect. The Pittsburgh Penguins remain an imperfect work in progress.

Tomas Fleischmann finished off an odd-man rush with his first goal of the season early in the third period to lift the unbeaten Canadiens to a 3-2 win over the winless Penguins on Tuesday night.

Fleischmann scored off a feed from David Desharnais and Carey Price made it stand up as Montreal improved to 4-0. Max Pacioretty scored twice for the Canadiens. Price finished with 31 saves as Montreal wrapped up a perfect four-game road swing to start the season.

“I think we were hard on them early,” Pacioretty said. “I think we agitated them a bit. I think you can see that they got frustrated and that’s the type of style that we play.”

Beau Bennett and Kris Letang scored for Pittsburgh, who fell to 0-3. Phil Kessel picked up an assist in his home debut with the Penguins, who picked the all-star forward up over the summer in a blockbuster trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 shots but Pittsburgh are winless through three games for the first time since 2005. The Penguins have just three goals through nine periods, their slowest offensive start since 2003/04.

“You have to find ways when you’re 0-3,” centre Sidney Crosby said. “If your desperation and urgency isn’t there, then there’s a problem.”

Twice Pittsburgh rallied from one-goal deficits to tie it but had no answer after Fleishmann finished a rush that started when Penguins rookie forward Sergei Plotnikov appeared to be tripped by Desharnais in the Montreal zone, springing the Canadiens. Fleischmann ended it by easily slipping a pass from Desharnais by Fleury.

Price, the reigning MVP, kept the Penguins at bay, including a beautiful glove save on Crosby with 2:17 to go in which the goaltender smothered the one-timer with his glove and left pad while lying on his stomach to preserve Montreal’s best start since the 1977/78 team won their first six games.

“It’s kind of just a desperation play,” Price said. “It’s just a pass across and I just do what goalies do. Just kind of kick out a limb and found a way to stop it. I got pretty lucky on it. It’s just one of those ones that hit you.”

The Penguins spent the off-season acquiring a marquee talent to pair with Crosby and bolstering the bottom six in hopes of reducing some of the load off their stars. While coach Mike Johnston expected it to take time for things to gel, he didn’t expect to watch his team to slog through a sluggish opening week in which they seemed reticent to send the puck toward the net.

“It’s so hard to score, you’ve got to be around the net area,” Johnston said. “We just can’t pass up those shots.”

Pacioretty gave the Canadiens the lead 5:46 into the game, taking a cross-ice feed from Brendan Gallagher then firing a shot from between the circles and beating a late-arriving Fleury. The Penguins produced just four shots in the first 20 minutes, including a wrister at the end of a two-on-one from Crosby that signalled the two-time MVP’s first shot on goal of the season.

Bennett tied it 5:31 into the second, creating a takeaway at one end then beating Price with a shot over the goaltender’s right shoulder. Pacioretty put Montreal back in front just over three minutes later with a power-play goal from the right circle, the puck glancing off Fleury’s glove on its way to the net.

Letang knotted it again just past the game’s midway point with a fluttering wrister that Price couldn’t quite pick up. Evgeni Malkin and Kessel picked up the assists – the first of the season by a Penguin – but Price settled down and Montreal’s red-hot start continued when Fleischmann slid the puck by Fleury early in the third.

“This is their home opener, they came out with a lot of energy,” Pacioretty said. “I couldn’t be more impressed with the way we handled that tonight, but we’re on to the next one.”

Elsewhere in the NHL

Dallas Stars 4, Edmonton Oilers 2

Jason Spezza scored three goals, including the tiebreaker late in the third period, and the Dallas Stars spoiled Connor McDavid’s first NHL goal with a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.

Spezza’s go-ahead goal for a 3-2 lead with 4:30 remaining came moments after Kari Lehtonen stopped Nail Yakupov on a breakaway. Lehtonen made his season debut after backing up Antti Niemi in the first two games.

The Stars had 52 shots, their most since getting 55 in a 3-3 tie with Los Angeles on November 8, 1995. Spezza finished off the hat trick with an empty-net goal.

McDavid, selected No 1 overall in the June draft, scored in the second period to pull the Oilers even at 2 after they had fallen behind 2-0.

McDavid almost scored Edmonton’s first goal when he appeared to tip a shot by defenceman Oscar Klefbom, who got credit for the goal. But McDavid didn’t have to wait much longer, redirecting a long shot by Andrej Sekera past Lehtonen less than 2 minutes later midway through the second period.

McDavid struggled in the faceoff circle again, winning just 3-of-9 to put him at 8-of-33 for the season. He had three shots in 16 minutes.

Jamie Benn also scored for Dallas. Klefbom had a goal for the Oilers.

San Jose Sharks 5, Washington Capitals 0

Martin Jones made 31 saves for his second straight shutout and San Jose took advantage of Alexander Ovechkin’s absence from Washington’s line-up.

The Sharks improved to 3-0-0 and have outscored their opponents 12-1. Jones allowed a goal on the first shot he faced this season, but has blanked opponents for the following 178 minutes, 11 seconds.

Matt Nieto and Chris Tierney each had a goal and an assist, and Joe Thornton, Mike Brown and Tomas Hertl added goals.

Ovechkin missed the game because of personal reasons. The Capitals sent out a note on Twitter about 35 minutes before the game saying the Russian star would not play. Ovechkin had a goal and an assist Saturday night in Washington’s season-opening victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Vancouver Canucks 3, Los Angeles Kings 0

Ryan Miller made 15 saves in his 36th career shutout, Adam Cracknell scored his second goal in two games, and Vancouver beat winless Los Angeles.

Alexander Edler scored and Derek Dorsett added an empty-net goal for the Canucks, who followed up a 2-1 shootout win over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night by improving to 3-0-1.

Miller is off to a strong start after matching his career high with six shutouts last season, his first with the Canucks. Jonathan Quick stopped 23 shots for struggling Los Angeles, who have been outscored 11-2 while losing three straight home games to open the season.

Nashville Predators 3, New Jersey Devils 1

Pekka Rinne made 22 saves and Nashville ran their season-opening winning streak to three with a victory over struggling New Jersey.

Roman Josi had a power-play goal in the first period and added a short-handed empty netter in the third. Eric Nystrom also had an empty-net goal for the Predators, off to their best start since 2010/11.

Rinne has played a major role in that success, allowing only two goals so far. Playing his club-record 384th game, he lost his shutout when Kyle Palmieri scored on a power play with 1:40 left.

New Jersey have lost all three if their games, leaving the tandem of general manager Ray Shero and coach John Hynes looking for their first wins since taking over in the off-season.

Florida Panthers 4, Carolina Hurricanes 1

Connor Brickley scored his first NHL goal, Alexsander Barkov gave Florida a two-goal lead 50 seconds later in the third period and the Panthers beat Carolina.

Nick Bjugstad opened the scoring in the first period, former Hurricanes forward Jussi Jokinen added an empty-net goal with 1:47 left, and Al Montoya made 25 saves to help Florida improve to 2-1-0.

Jaromir Jagr assisted on Barkov’s goal for his 1,809th career point.

Elias Lindholm scored for Carolina in the second period, and Eddie Lack made 22 saves in his first start of the season. The Hurricanes dropped to 0-3-0.

Winnipeg Jets 4, New York Rangers 1

Brian Little scored twice, Michael Hutchinson made 40 saves and Winnipeg beat New York to finish 3-1-0 in their opening road trip.

Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Stuart also scored for the Jets.

Mats Zuccarello scored for New York, and Henrik Lundqvist made 24 saves. The Rangers dropped to 3-1-0.

Detroit Red Wings 3, Tampa Bay Lightning 1

Henrik Zetterberg had a goal and an assist, Jimmy Howard made 20 saves and Detroit beat Tampa Bay to improve to 3-0-0.

Gustav Nyquist and Kyle Quincey also scored for Detroit.

Ryan Callahan scored for Tampa Bay, and Ben Bishop made 21 saves. The Lightning are 3-1-0.

St Louis Blues 4, Calgary Flames 3

Colton Parayko scored his first two NHL goals to lead St Louis past Calgary.

The 22-year-old defenceman broke a 2-2 tie on a power play at 4:47 of the second period on a 55-foot wrist shot that eluded goalie Jonas Hiller. Parayko scored again with 32 seconds left in the second on another long shot, this one changing directions slightly on the way and slipping under Hiller’s arm.

Troy Brouwer and Scottie Upshall also scored for the Blues. Mason Raymond, Jiri Hudler and David Jones scored for Calgary.

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