Fowler stops 26, Canadiens hold off Maple Leafs to push point streak to 10

TORONTO -- Jacob Fowler made 26 saves, and the Montreal Canadiens extended their point streak to 10 games by holding on for a 4-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

Montreal secured the win after its 3-0 lead slipped to 3-2 in a 55-second span early in the third period.

Fowler, a 21-year-old rookie, was in goal Tuesday when the Canadiens blew a 4-0 lead in the final 2:39 of regulation and lost 5-4 in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets, the latest four-goal comeback in NHL history.

After the Maple Leafs began to come back Saturday, he was vocal during a TV timeout and perfect the rest of the game. He improved to 8-1-1, including 8-0-1 in his past nine games. The last rookie goalie 21 or younger with a nine-game point streak was Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals in 2010-11.

“You definitely don’t want to give up goals in a short sequence like that, but I think our group’s pretty resilient,” Fowler said. “You know, we’ve gone through, I don’t want to say tough times, because we’ve had a good record, but Tuesday is a hard thing to get over, and I think we’ve had a great response since then.”

Alex Newhook scored twice, and Chris Kreider and Zachary Bolduc also scored for Montreal (11-3-3), which is 8-0-2 in its past 10.

William Nylander and Gavin McKenna scored for Toronto (8-8-2), which has lost four of its past five (1-4-0). Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves.

“I thought we honestly played a pretty solid game,” said McKenna, 18, the No. 1 pick of the 2026 NHL Draft. “But a couple turnovers, two by myself, and I think that’s just what killed us.”

Newhook’s two goals gave the Canadiens a 2-0 lead in the first period.

After a McKenna turnover, Newhook sent the puck across the low slot, and it ricocheted off Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe’s right skate, off Bobrovsky’s left skate and into the net at 5:56.

Then, while battling with McCabe in the right circle, Newhook reached out with his stick and deflected a point shot by Kaiden Guhle between Bobrovsky’s pads at 13:06.

Kreider extended the Montreal lead to 3-0 at 12:57 of the second period. He intercepted a cross-ice pass by McKenna, then finished a breakaway by firing a wrist shot past Bobrovsky’s right pad.

“I obviously knew that it was a mistake,” McKenna said. “I knew I was going to probably sit for that one. My teammates in the second intermission came in, talked to me, and (coach Jim Hiller) pulled me aside and talked to me, and it was good. He said he was going to get me out there again, which felt good. So, I appreciated that from him, and honestly, it fired me up.”

Nylander broke through on the power play for Toronto to make it 3-1 at 6:19 of the third period, ripping a one-timer from the left circle and tying John Tavares for fifth on the Maple Leafs’ all-time list for power-play goals (85).

McKenna chipped in a puck from the low slot to cut it to 3-2 at 7:14.

“It’s easy to kind of get in your own head a little bit there in moments like that, but we’ve got leaders on this team who stepped up and just said, ‘We’re fine,’” Newhook said. “It’s really all it is. ‘Just get back to us.’ And we did that, so it was good.”

Fowler spoke up during a TV timeout at 8:08.

“It was good to see,” Newhook said. “He’s got a good presence back there. He’s got a calming presence for sure. For a young guy to be able to step up like that and come to the bench, he’s not panicking. We know he’s going to be on it behind us, it’s good. I liked hearing it.”

Montreal coach Martin St. Louis wasn’t surprised Fowler wasn’t rattled.

“I feel like he’s done that at every level he’s played, so I think we knew that about him,” St. Louis said. “He looks very comfortable, confident. I think we’re trying to play well in front of him, so he doesn’t have to steal a game for us, and I thought tonight he did his job, and I think we did our job in front of him.”

Bolduc responded for the Canadiens on the power play at 12:15, extending their lead to 4-2 by blasting a one-timer from the right circle past Bobrovsky.

Montreal killed the last 3:33 -- including the final 2:24 with Bobrovsky pulled for the extra skater -- after Juraj Slafkovsky took a double minor for high sticking Jack Roslovic.

The Canadiens have won five straight against the Maple Leafs. They’ve had only one longer run against them in 65 years: 14 games from March 1, 2014, to Feb. 25, 2017.

“They grabbed the momentum pretty quick off (their second goal),” St. Louis said. “But I liked how we regulated, got a big power-play goal and separated again and finished the job.”

NOTES: Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly left with a lower-body injury early in the second period and did not return. Hiller had no update. … Tavares returned after missing nine games with a lower-body injury sustained Oct. 15 in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres, but he played the wing instead of center for the first time since April 2023.