Primeau makes 41 saves, Canadiens shut out Blue Jackets

MONTREAL -- Cayden Primeau made 41 saves for the Montreal Canadiens in a 3-0 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

It was Primeau’s second shutout in his past four starts; he made 13 saves in a 5-0 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 13.

“Once I got in, everyone was going crazy,” Primeau said about his postgame reception in the dressing room. “It just means so much. They were just as much a part of that win as I was.”

It was Primeau’s first start since the Canadiens traded goalie Jake Allen to the New Jersey Devils on Friday, ending Montreal’s season-long rotation of three goalies.

“[Primeau] just looks more confident in the net,” Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle said. “He’s making a lot of big saves at timely moments in the game. It could have been a 3-3 game in the first period, and he kept them all out of the net. And that’s what you need out of your goalie sometimes. Sometimes the team’s not playing the greatest in front of him and they stand on their head. So, he’s definitely a huge part of this win tonight.”

Brendan Gallagher, Juraj Slafkovsky and Joshua Roy scored in the first period for Montreal (25-30-10), which has won three of seven (3-2-2) since losing five straight.

The Canadiens, who had a three-goal lead 5:48 into the game, were outshot 22-8 in the first period and 41-23 overall.

“I think there have been a lot of games this year where we’ve had really good starts,” Gallagher said. “And then we’ve come back in the room after the first and it’s been tied or we've been down at times, you know, we almost haven’t been rewarded. I think tonight overall, the first period, if we look at it as a whole, wasn’t our best period.”

Elvis Merzlikins made one save on four shots before he was replaced by Daniil Tarasov for Columbus (22-33-10), which has lost three of four. Tarasov saved all 19 shots he faced in relief.

“It was a pretty slow start from us,” Tarasov said. “Obviously, it was a key moment (when) they scored really fast three goals and then it was kind of like a slap on our face, and then we started to move our legs and we created some chances in the offensive zone. But (Primeau) was really good.”

Gallagher scored 21 seconds into the first period to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead, putting in a backhand centering pass from Jake Evans in front.

Slafkovsky made it 2-0 at 3:15 on the power play with a one-timer from the right face-off circle.

“I feel like we’re getting better, just game to game,” Slafkovsky said. “We keep working, we keep reading off each other and then it makes it easier for everyone on the ice if we’re on the same page.”

Roy pushed it to 3-0 at 5:48, redirecting Arber Xhekaj’s shot from the blue line past Merzlikins, who was replaced after allowing the goal.

“We were very opportunistic,” Gallagher said. “We scored early, and it obviously helped. I think it allowed us some time. ‘Prime’ made some huge saves at huge times for us, obviously, but as the game went on I thought we really settled down, especially in the third. But yeah, it’s nice to get up 3-0 early.”

Merzlikins was making his first start since March 2 after an upper-body injury kept him out of the past four games.

“You want to change the momentum there,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said of the goalie change. “I don’t think it’s on Elvis, but you want to do something right away. The first one is a turnover, the second one is a PK, and the third one, it’s all on us system-wise. But we had our chances to come back in this game. Five minutes into the game you’re down by three, you still have lots of time, and we created enough to come back.”

NOTES: Blue Jackets forward Yegor Chinakhov left in the first period after sustaining an upper-body injury and did not return. … Columbus forward Kirill Marchenko did not play because of an illness. … The Canadiens scored in the first minute of consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 1-3, 2004. Defenseman Mike Matheson scored 38 seconds into the first period of Montreal’s 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. … Slafkovsky has 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists) this season and is tied with Henri Richard (1955-56) and Jesperi Kotkaniemi (2018-19) for the third-highest point total by a teenager in Canadiens history. Mario Tremblay leads with 39 points in 1974-75 and Stephane Richer is second with 37 in 1985-86.