PITTSBURGH – Carey Price made 26 saves in his NHL debut and Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Markov each had a goal and an assist to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night.

Mark Recchi had two assists and Ryan Whitney and Maxime Talbot scored for Pittsburgh.

Montreal has earned at least a point in each of its three games this season.

The 20-year-old Price was making his NHL debut, an event that was highly anticipated across Canada. He led Canada to the World Junior Championship last season, earning MVP honors in the process. The former No. 5 overall pick of the Canadiens also was goaltender of the year in major junior hockey last season and then led Hamilton to the American Hockey League championship last spring.

Canadiens Hall of Fame goalies Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy also made their NHL debuts against the Penguins – Roy’s first game was 22 years ago to the day, at the same venue (then called the Civic Arena).

Price, who was taken four spots behind Penguins star Sidney Crosby at the 2005 draft, stopped the reigning NHL scoring champion at least twice during a flurry in front of his net and made a save on Erik Christensen from close range early in the second.

Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury – himself a No. 1 overall pick in 2003 – was just as solid as Price early, including stoning Christopher Higgins from the slot four minutes into the second.

The first goal Price allowed wasn’t a soft one. Whitney picked up a loose puck in front of the net while on the power play. Crosby had gone right at Price, skating from behind the goal line to the left of Price seven minutes into the second period. Recchi tried to jam the puck home, and Crosby was pushed by Montreal defenseman Roman Hamerlik into Price, who fell over, leaving an open net for Whitney.

Plekanec tied the game at 1 when he fired a slap shot past Fluery’s glove hand while on the power play with 6:53 left the second.

It was Plekanec’s first goal of the season, and ex-Penguin Alexei Kovalev earned his first less than four minutes later when his wrist shot got past Fleury to make it 2-1 Montreal.

Markov scored what would ultimately be the game-winner 2:51 into the third period when he fired an open wrist shot past Fleury on a rebound. But the Penguins got that goal back 57 seconds later when Talbot converted off a pretty no-look backhand pass from Evgeni Malkin, who was behind the net.

Price stopped Crosby and Gary Roberts on consecutive opportunities with about three minutes to play to help preserve the victory.

Notes: Thursday is the 40th anniversary of the first game in Penguins franchise history. Montreal defeated Pittsburgh 3-1 on Oct. 11, 1967. The Penguins aired a small video tribute to the occasion. … Montreal C Kyle Chipchura also made his NHL debut. … Kovalev, Markov and Koivu each have at least one point in each game this season. … Malkin has a three-game assist streak. … Penguins D Darryl Sydor played his 1,100th NHL game.

AP-ES-10-10-07 2206EDT