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 gave Montreal a 1-0 lead just 21 seconds into the first period, 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.”