MONTREAL — The Pittsburgh Penguins got a winning effort from a bunch of unexpected sources in their first game without reigning MVP Sidney Crosby.

If they can keep that up during their captain's extended injury absence, the Penguins might turn out just fine.

Dany Sabourin made 31 saves for his second shutout, Jeff Taffe scored in the first period, and Pittsburgh beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 Saturday night.

Sabourin, who got his first career shutout in a 5-0 win in New Jersey on Nov. 5, made his first appearance since Dec. 21 one night after Ty Conklin took his first regulation loss in his 11th straight start.

"He's been working really hard and it's been a week and a half that he's been asking me when he was going to get back in, so he wanted to play bad," Penguins goaltending coach Gilles Meloche said. "He had to come up with a big game, and he did."

Pittsburgh's 3-0 loss Friday to Tampa Bay was particularly costly because Crosby sustained a high ankle sprain that will almost certainly sideline him for next weekend's All-Star game in Atlanta and may keep him out of action for several weeks.

Crosby didn't travel with the team and had his sprained and swollen right ankle re-examined Saturday by the team's medical staff. No prognosis for the defending NHL scoring champion's return will be made until the swelling subsides.

The Penguins were 0-2-2 in the four previous games Crosby had missed since he began his NHL career at the start of the 2005-06 season.

"You lose the best player in the league, you've still got to be able to go out and win games and we're going to have to do it for a month, who knows, and we've got to stay in the playoff race," Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "We want to get as high a seed as we can and tonight is the first step in proving that we're a good hockey team without him."

Taffe scored his second goal of the season 6:14 in when he beat Cristobal Huet on a setup by Penguins enforcer Georges Laraque.

"When I'm down low I'm confident that I can find the open man," said Laraque, who has three goals and seven assists in 39 games.

Evgeni Malkin put a backhand into an empty net with 12.4 seconds remaining.

Montreal, which returned from a 3-1 road trip, fell to 8-8-5 at home.

Huet stopped 23 shots.

Penguins right wing Colby Armstrong left the game just 14 seconds in with a bruised hip and didn't return. Armstrong slammed into the boards in the right corner after he was checked by Canadiens defenseman Roman Hamrlik.

Crosby missed a game in 2005-06 with the flu and missed three games last year.