Teddy Blueger collected two goals and an assist and Tristan Jarry made 24 saves to help the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins breeze to a 6-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Jake Guentzel scored and set up a goal, and captain Sidney Crosby, Danton Heinen and Brock McGinn also tallied for the Penguins, who halted a three-game losing skid. John Marino, Zach Aston-Reese and Bryan Rust had two assists apiece.
Staked to a sizable lead, Jarry turned aside 10 shots in the third period to secure his first shutout of the season and the eighth of his career.
Montreal's Cayden Primeau yielded five goals on 31 shots before being relieved by Sam Montembeault (11 saves) to start the third period. The Canadiens have lost four in a row and nine of their past 11 games (2-7-2).
Pittsburgh benefited from a Montreal turnover in the neutral zone and a pretty passing sequence to open the scoring at 3:36 of the first period. Rust entered the offensive zone and backhanded a feed to Guentzel, who one-touched a pass that Crosby converted from in close for his first goal of the season.
Crosby has tormented the Canadiens in his career, to the tune of 53 points (20 goals, 33 assists) in 41 games.
Heinen doubled the advantage just over nine minutes later after one-timing a loose puck that caromed off the end boards, collecting his fifth goal of the season.
Guentzel's sharp wrist shot from the right circle beat Primeau with 48 seconds left in the first period. Guentzel's goal was his team-high-tying sixth of the season and third in as many games.
Blueger accepted a short feed from Aston-Reese before beating Primeau at 13:49 of the second period. Blueger picked up an assist less than 2 1/2 minutes later after McGinn redirected his shot past Primeau for his fourth goal of the season.
Blueger capped the scoring with 11 seconds remaining in the game, his fifth of the campaign.
Montreal's Cole Caufield recorded one shot on goal, a minus-3 rating and logged 15:21 of ice time after being recalled from Laval of the AHL.
--Field Level Media
Pittsburgh | Montreal | |
Teddy Blueger 3 | Points | N/A |
Teddy Blueger 2 | Goals | N/A |
Zach Aston-Reese 2 | Assists | N/A |
Danton Heinen 1 | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Tristan Jarry 1.000 | Save Percentage | Sam Montembeault .917 |
Tristan Jarry 24 | Saves | Cayden Primeau 26 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Pittsburgh | 43 | 6 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 2 | 22 |
Montreal | 24 | 0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 2 | 18 |