Jacob Fowler stopped all 46 shots he faced, and the Canadiens beat the St. Louis Blues 2-0 on Tuesday night at the Enterprise Center. It was the second shutout of the season for the 21-year-old goalie and a career high in saves. It also pushed Montreal to 7-3-2, with three wins in a row and points in five straight games (4-0-1). Zachary Bolduc scored the winner against the team that drafted him, and Florian Xhekaj, playing on the night his brother Arber sat as a healthy scratch for the first time, scored his first NHL goal.
Let’s be honest about how this one was won. The Canadiens were outshot 46-20, and at five-on-five the Blues had a 56-36 edge in shot attempts. The third period was a siege, with the Blues outshooting Montreal 24 to 3. This was a goalie win, plain and simple, and Martin St-Louis’ group will want to have the puck more on Thursday in Dallas. Now the details, because the way the Canadiens survived is worth understanding.
Fowler Stole This One
Fowler faced 46 shots in 59 minutes and 38 seconds, and the previous high of his career was 38, against Pittsburgh last December. Thirty-one of the shots came at five-on-five, four came on special teams, and the last 11 came late in the third period when St. Louis pulled goalie Jordan Binnington for the extra attacker. Binnington was out of the net for 5:54 of the final seven minutes, and the Blues threw everything at Fowler in that stretch. The Canadiens also blocked 18 attempts in front of him, and everything that got through, Fowler stopped.
That makes him 6-1-0 with a 1.54 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage in seven games this season. He has won six straight starts, has allowed one goal or fewer in each of his last three, and sits tied for second in the NHL with two shutouts, behind Dallas’ Jake Oettinger, who has three. MoneyPuck rates the shots he faced tonight as worth about 3.9 expected goals, and he gave up none of them. Jakub Dobeš backed him up and did not play. If you want the bigger picture on whether Fowler is the number one, we covered it in our Fowler article.
Fowler also made some history on the night. He became the third goaltender in Canadiens history to post a six-game win streak at age 21 or younger, following Carey Price (seven games in 2007-08, at age 20) and Rogie Vachon (six games in 1966-67, at age 21).
His 46 saves set a Canadiens benchmark for saves in a shutout by a rookie since 1955-56, the first season shots on goal were officially tracked, beating Cayden Primeau (41 on March 12, 2024) and Tony Esposito (41 on Dec. 21, 1968). Around the league, he is the ninth rookie goaltender since 1955-56 to make at least 46 saves in a shutout, and the first since Connor Ingram made 47 on Feb. 15, 2023.
How the Goals Happened
The first goal came at 8:37 of the second period, just three seconds after a Montreal power play had expired. Mike Matheson fed Bolduc, who snapped it from the right circle past Binnington, and Alexandre Texier got the second assist. It was Bolduc’s fifth goal of the season and his first against the Blues, who drafted him 17th overall in 2021 before sending him to Montreal for Logan Mailloux on July 1, 2025. It stood up as the game winner.
The insurance goal came at 2:17 of the third period. Xhekaj tipped Matheson’s shot from the point past Binnington, and after a review for a high stick the goal stood. It was his first NHL goal, in his fourth game this season and his ninth in the NHL, and he scored it in only 6:19 of ice time. Kirby Dach picked up the second assist.
The Third Period: Blues 24 Shots, Canadiens 3
This is the part of the game you have to see to believe. In the third period the Blues outshot the Canadiens 24 to 3, and one of those three Montreal shots was Xhekaj’s goal at 2:17. The Blues also had 34 shot attempts to Montreal’s 13 in those 20 minutes. After the 2-0 lead, the Canadiens defended almost the whole period, and they did not get another shot on net until 11:24.
The siege got worse after St. Louis pulled Binnington with seven minutes left. The Blues played with six skaters for 5:54 of the final seven minutes and put 11 shots on Fowler in that stretch, on top of 13 shots at five-on-five in the period. Montreal blocked eight more attempts, and the Canadiens had three looks at the empty net, but those attempts missed the net or were blocked, so Fowler had to keep stopping everything. He was sensational, and he did it over and over while the pressure kept coming.
There is also a bench factor. Texier left after his shift that ended at 11:40, so the Canadiens finished the game with 11 forwards for the last eight minutes against a Blues team throwing everything at the net. A lead built on one goalie performance is thin, and the Canadiens will want more of the puck on Thursday in Dallas.
What the Numbers Say
| Category | Canadiens | Blues |
|---|---|---|
| Final score | 2 | 0 |
| Shots on goal | 20 | 46 |
| 5-on-5 shot attempts | 36 | 56 |
| Power play | 0-for-3 | 0-for-3 |
| Hits | 19 | 26 |
| Blocked shots | 18 | 11 |
| Giveaways | 18 | 18 |
| Faceoff wins | 41% | 59% |
Official NHL numbers. Shot attempts are five-on-five only and include shots on goal, misses and blocks.
The story of the night sits in that table. St. Louis won the puck battles, the faceoffs and the shot count, while Montreal won the one number that matters. The Canadiens gave the puck away 18 times, the same as the Blues, but they paid for it far less because Fowler was perfect and the blue line kept getting in shooting lanes. The Blues hit more, they shot more, and they still left with nothing. For a 21-year-old goalie, that is a night to remember.
The Analytics: How Good Was Fowler?
Goals saved above expected (GSAx) compares the goals a goalie allowed with the goals an average goalie would have allowed on the same shots, based on where each one came from and what type it was. By that measure Fowler’s night was huge. On MoneyPuck’s model he saved 3.93 goals above expected against the Blues, and his season total moved from +6.1 to +10.1, which is first among the 71 goalies in the league, ahead of Jake Oettinger (+9.4), Linus Ullmark (+8.3) and Jeremy Swayman (+8.2).
The season picture backs it up. The shots Fowler has faced this year would have produced about 21 goals for an average goalie, and he has allowed 11. That is a .942 save percentage against an expected .890. It also matters that the Canadiens are not giving him easy nights: by the NHL’s shot locations, 21 of the 46 Blues shots came from inside 25 feet, 20 of them from the slot area, compared with 10 of 20 for Montreal.
The five-on-five numbers explain why Fowler had so much work. The Canadiens had 39.1 percent of the shot attempts (36-56), and the Blues had 31 of the 45 shots on goal at five-on-five. That is a long way from the 56.8 percent attempt share the Canadiens averaged over their first 10 games. On the Hockey Stat Cards game score, Matheson (+4.74) was the best skater on the card, ahead of Florian Xhekaj (+2.50) and Evans (+2.00). Carrier (-3.93) and Engstrom (-3.75) were the lowest, followed by Anderson (-2.52), Caufield (-1.81) and Newhook (-1.59). In coaching terms, the process said the Canadiens should have lost, and the goalie and two well-taken goals said otherwise. You can win that way once in a while, but it is not a plan to count on.
Special Teams and Discipline
Both teams went 0-for-3 on the power play. The Canadiens’ own power play produced only two shots on goal in three chances, so it did not tilt the game. At the other end, the penalty kill did its job. Oliver Kapanen took a hooking minor late in the first, and Kaiden Guhle took a hooking penalty and a cross-checking penalty in the second. Montreal killed all three, and the Blues managed only two shots on goal during those power plays. Three minors is a manageable number for a team that has been among the league leaders in penalties, but Guhle’s two in the second period are the kind that can turn a game.
Matheson, Texier and the Lineup
Matheson was the second star with two assists in 23:25, a +2, and he was involved in both goals. Texier, who assisted on the first goal, did not return after his shift that ended at 11:40 of the third period. He took a Matheson shot and left the game in pain, and the team has not given an update yet. Arber Xhekaj and Owen Beck were the healthy scratches, and Adam Engstrom played 10:23 in the lineup. Lane Hutson played 22:04 and the third star, Bolduc, played just 12:19.
Next Up
The Canadiens (7-3-2, 16 points) now head to Dallas for Thursday night, then return home to face Pittsburgh on Saturday. The Blues fall to 5-6-1 and were shut out for the second game in a row, after a 4-0 loss to Carolina on Saturday. You can follow the lines and injuries for the next game on our Lineup Tonight page, and if you missed the preview, it is here.
Sources: NHL.com game data, play-by-play and shift reports, MoneyPuck, Hockey Stat Cards, RDS.
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