Anderson, Canadiens hold off Penguins 5-4

MONTREAL: Josh Anderson had two goals and an assist, and the Montreal Canadiens held on to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 at the Bell Centre on Saturday night for their fifth straight win.

Jacob Fowler made 25 saves for his seventh straight win, the NHL said in its game recap. Chris Kreider had a goal and an assist and Lane Hutson had two assists for Montreal (9-3-2), which extended its point streak to seven games (6-0-1).

Sidney Crosby scored with 3:11 remaining in the third period to pull the Penguins within 5-4. The goal tied him with Marcel Dionne for sixth on the NHL career points list at 1,771. Crosby also had two assists. Erik Karlsson had a goal and two assists, and Rickard Rakell and Tommy Novak each had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh (5-7-2). Sergei Murashov made 22 saves.

Karlsson put the Penguins ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal at 2:08 of the first period. Crosby set up the goal for his 1,112th career assist, all with Pittsburgh. That moved him one ahead of Ray Bourque, who had the first 1,111 of his 1,169 career assists with the Boston Bruins, and made Crosby the NHL’s all-time assist leader with one team, according to the league.

Montreal answered quickly. Oliver Kapanen tied it 1-1 at 2:41 with his first goal of the season, and Anderson made it 2-1 at 3:05, the third goal of the game in 57 seconds. Novak tied it 2-2 at 7:28. A fifth first-period goal by Cole Caufield was overturned after Pittsburgh challenged for goaltender interference.

Alexandre Texier put the Canadiens ahead 3-2 at 1:54 of the second period, and Kreider pushed it to 4-2 at 2:21. Rakell cut the lead to 4-3 at 3:45. Anderson restored the two-goal margin at 5-3 at 13:06 when the rebound of a Hutson shot struck him before going in off Penguins defenceman Kris Letang.

Crosby scored his power-play goal from the right edge of the crease at 16:49 of the third, but Pittsburgh could not find a tying goal. The result was confirmed by box-score data from Inside the Rink.

The game was among the most-searched topics in Canada on Saturday night, according to Google Trends. The Canadiens have now beaten the Dallas Stars, the St. Louis Blues and the Winnipeg Jets in recent games. See our earlier reports: Caufield, Newhook score twice as Canadiens top Stars 5-2, Fowler stops 46 as Canadiens blank Blues 2-0 and Fowler stops 33 as Canadiens edge Jets 2-1 outdoors.

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