WINNIPEG -- Jacob Fowler made 33 saves for the Montreal Canadiens, who hung on for a 2-1 victory against the Winnipeg Jets at the 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday.
“(Fowler) was tremendous,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “But ideally, I would like to have to defend less.
We were good when we had to do it.”
Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle scored, and Cole Caufield had two assists for the Canadiens (6-3-2), who have points in four straight (3-0-1).
“I think last year I got a good taste of it and I was really fortunate for this group to welcome me in,” Fowler said of the 17 games he played in his rookie season in 2025-26. “I just had a lot of belief in this group that if I can just give our team a chance, we have a lot of skill in this team and we can put a few goals in the net.”
Isak Rosen scored and Stuart Skinner made 19 saves for the Jets (4-4-3), who’ve lost five straight (0-3-2).
“I thought we started a little bit slow,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “Obviously, third period was our best period.
Their goaltender was real good, some big stops.
The biggest thing for me, we didn't have enough traffic on Fowler. We didn't make it a little bit more difficult for him to find pucks and this is something that we’ve got to make sure we do a better job at.”
After a scoreless first period, Hutson made it 1-0 Canadiens at 7:19 of the second, when Noah Dobson found him backdoor with a cross-slot pass and he put it behind Skinner.
“I think it’s still a work in progress,” Hutson said. “We’re just trying to do hard actions, play the same way, play prideful hockey.
And I feel like we’re doing a better job of it, limiting our risk and still learning how to play with the lead, but we’re doing a pretty good job of putting ourselves in these situations.”
Guhle pushed it to 2-0 at 11:04, scoring with a catch-and-release wrist shot from the blue line through traffic.
“Our penalty kill did a great job in front of'Fows,' but we actually had to defend too much tonight,” St. Louis said. “I’m not going to get into the why, but (we) actually did a good job of defending.
Our D’s did a pretty good job of that.”
Rosen scored his first goal of the season to cut it to 2-1 at 15:24 of the third period. Gabriel Vilardi set him up for a one-timer from below the right face-off dot.
“He looked me off right before,” Winnipeg forward Adam Lowry said of Rosen. “He said he just needed to get dialed in.
He’s done a lot of things really well coming into this year. It’s nice to see him get rewarded.
What he’s going to be known for is his offensive chops, and you saw that. He had a grade A, and real happy to see that go in for him.”
Winnipeg forward Dawson Mercer had two shots and a block while skating 15:22 in his Jets debut after being acquired in the trade that sent goalie Connor Hellebuyck to the New Jersey Devils on Friday.
“It was a pretty cool experience. Definitely a weird situation to be thrown into, but honestly a pretty special one that I’ll cherish,” Mercer said.
“Obviously, the outcome is not what we wanted, but overall nice to get going with the guys right away, and then build off it from here.”
NOTES: Fowler became the fourth rookie goaltender to earn a win in an outdoor game, joining Nico Daws (2024 Stadium Series with New Jersey Devils), Matt Murray (2017 Stadium Series with Pittsburgh Penguins) and Mike Condon (2016 Winter Classic with Montreal Canadiens). He is also the youngest goalie in NHL history (21 years, 335 days) to start in an outdoor game.
Fowler extended his win streak to five games, allowing eight combined goals in that span. He became the fourth different Canadiens rookie goaltender in the past 40 years (since 1986-87) to post a five-game win streak.
The Canadiens improved to 3-2-0 in outdoor games. Their three wins are tied with the Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues for the third most among all teams, behind the Rangers (six) and Bruins (four).
Montreal defenseman Arber Xhekaj and forward Florian Xhekaj became the third set of brothers to appear in the same outdoor game (as teammates or opponents). The others: Jack and Luke Hughes (2024 Stadium Series) as well as Daniel and Henrik Sedin (2014 Heritage Classic).
Guhle scored in a second straight game and has three points in that span (two goals, one assist).
Mercer became the fourth player to make his debut with a team in an outdoor game, joining Justin Dowling (2026 Winter Classic with New York Rangers), Matt Rempe (2024 Stadium Series with Rangers) and Ron Hainsey (2017 Stadium Series with Pittsburgh).
