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Jacob Fowler turned aside 46 shots to record a shutout and lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 2:0 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center. The 21-year-old goaltender secured his sixth win, his second shutout of the season, and the third of his NHL career.
Fowler’s 46-save performance set a franchise record for the most saves by a Canadiens rookie in a shutout. The young netminder also joined Carey Price and Rogie Vachon as the only goaltenders aged 21 or younger in Montreal history to win six straight starts. At the other end of the ice, Jordan Binnington stopped 18 shots for the Blues, who dropped their second game without scoring a goal.
Montreal broke a scoreless deadlock at 29:00 of the second period when Zachary Bolduc converted a feed from Mike Matheson and Alexandre Texier, beating Binnington from the right wing against his former team. The Canadiens extended their lead at 43:00, when Florian Xhekaj scored, with assists from Mike Matheson and Kirby Dach. This marker stood as the forward’s first career NHL goal, making him and his brother Arber the 12th sibling pair in franchise history to both score for the club.
The game featured a head-to-head meeting between Slovak forwards Juraj Slafkovský of Montreal and Dalibor Dvorský of St. Louis. Slafkovský logged 17 minutes and 29 seconds of ice time, registering two shots on goal and one blocked shot. Dvorský played 11 minutes and 13 seconds, recording one shot on goal, three hits, two penalty minutes for interference, and winning 63.6% of his faceoffs. Neither Slovak player factored into the scoring.
St. Louis held a 32:18 advantage in shots on goal. Both clubs converted zero times on the power play, with St. Louis and Montreal each having three penalties. Referees penalized Kaiden Guhle and Oliver Kapanen for Montreal, while Dalibor Dvorský served a minor for the Blues.
The victory lifts the Canadiens to their third win and extends their point streak to five games at 4-0-1.