Penguins 3, Canadiens 1

A quick look at the Penguins’ 3-1 victory against Montreal at the Bell Centre Saturday night:

*** The Penguins finished the first half with a record of 20-16-5, good for 45 points. That put them within one point of eighth place in the Eastern Conference, pending the outcome of Tampa Bay’s game at Vancouver. They were 25-10-6 at the midpoint of the 2014-15 season.

*** Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins’ best player this season, was outstanding, stopping 33 of 34 shots. His best might have come with 4 ½ minutes left in regulation, when he gloved a P.K. Subban slap shot through traffic. “I put something there, and it was in the glove,” Fleury said.

*** The Penguins’ penalty-killers ran their streak of successful kills to 25 by denying Montreal on four tries with the extra man and their power play was 1-for-4, giving it 11 goals in the past 31 tries.“I think that’s the most complete game we’ve played this year,” said forward Eric Fehr, who sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 10 seconds left in regulation. “From five-on-five to power play to penalty-kill to goaltending, I thought we were really good.”

*** Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin was injured when he took a Subban shot off the left hand or lower arm late in the third period. He did not play the rest of the game, but said afterward that his injury is not significant. “Nothing too bad,” he said. “It should be good for the next game.”

*** The Penguins most consistent failing during the first half was their inability to consistently capitalize on scoring chances, and that happened again against the Canadiens. Montreal goalie Mike Condon deserves some of the credit, but the Penguins simply squandered some other chances. “We had some openings and we missed them,” center Sidney Crosby said. “It’s nice to not have those come back and bite you.”

*** Patric Hornqvist opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 7:18 of the second period, when he tossed a backhander past Condon after getting a feed from Phil Kessel. “It was a great play by Phil,” Hornqvist said.

*** Subban tied the game 10:39 of the second, but Bryan Rust put the Penguins in front for good less than four minutes later. Nick Bonino sprung Rust behind the Montreal defense with a deft backhand feed, and Rust – who had been recalled from the Penguins’ farm team in Wilkes-Barre just a day earlier – put a high shot past Condon. “That’s a pretty good way to start,” Rust said. “Anytime you get called up, that first game, there’s a little bit of nerves.”

*** The Penguins are 6-2-1 in their past nine games in Montreal.

*** Hornqvist, on the Penguins’ play of late: “We’ve started to find out the way to play. And hopefully, we can get rolling here.”

*** Tom Kuhnhackl made his NHL debut and became the sixth German-born player to play for the Penguins. The others are Randy Gilhen, Sven Butenschon, Thomas Greiss, Christian Ehrhoff and Marcel Goc.