Everyone may have come to see Montreal Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov, but a few other Habs prospects turned the tide in favour of the home side on Monday night instead. For one, goalie Jacob Fowler sealed his team’s 2-1 shootout victory over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins to open both teams’ preseason schedules.
Game Recap
After Oliver Kapanen put the Canadiens 2-1 ahead in the shootout, Fowler stopped Avery Hayes to secure the win by that same score. Sean Farrell had scored the first marker in the shootout in the third round after goalie Sergei Murashov, who was otherwise stellar in the contest, making 19 saves on 20 shots, deflected the puck in off the initial shot.
Penguins forward Tristan Broz responded immediately afterward to unofficially sully Fowler’s perfect night. A full other scoreless round followed before Kapanen went backhand on a deke to score the final tally of the evening.
For his part, Broz, a 2021 second-round pick, had one of the better showings of anyone on the night. He showed quick hands and an even quicker release to get it past Fowler in the shootout. He also opened the scoring in the first period, on a power-play give-and-go with Valtteri Puustinen.
Canadiens starter Sam Montembeault allowed the goal in what was otherwise a flawless 20-save performance, as he kept his flat-footed team in it early. The contest may have ended with a mere three-shot-on-goal difference (34-31 Penguins), but during Montembeault’s half of the game, the Habs got badly outshot and outchanced, only truly coming alive late in the second after a fight between Jared Davidson and Samuel Poulin (and the goaltending change, with Murashov replacing Joel Blomqvist on the Penguins’ side of things).
At around the 17:00 mark of the second, Canadiens forwards Brendan Gallagher and Jake Evans traded chances to no avail. It took a few shots in close on Murashov early in the third, for potential-rookie Owen Beck to get the Habs on the board. The Canadiens had technically just let their second two-man advantage of the night go to waste, with Beck scoring mere seconds after Ryan Graves had left the penalty box (for holding Kapanen) to even things up. In recording four shots on goal, two blocked shots and three hits (and the goal), Beck furthered his case to make the team, with ironically Kapanen standing in his way.
Related: Canadiens Prospect Oliver Kapanen Has a Chance to Claim an NHL Role
Despite Demidov hogging most of the attention heading into this one with top-line ice time and a good shot at earning the Canadiens a second straight Calder Memorial Trophy (Lane Hutson), he was quiet for most of the night. That’s if you ignore the noise the crowd understandably made whenever the 2024 fifth-overall pick touched the puck.
Demidov’s best chance came in the dying seconds of overtime, when offseason-acquisition Noah Dobson fed him the puck for a one-timer that Murashov got a pad on, leading to the shootout (which he even opened only to be stopped by Murashov), and ultimately a happy home crowd. They after all got the win and impressive performances from several Habs prospects, even if none of them were named Demidov.
The Canadiens continue their preseason schedule on Tuesday, as they host the Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins next face the Columbus Blue Jackets on the road on Wednesday.
