Evans scores twice, Canadiens defeat Blackhawks

CHICAGO – Jake Evans scored twice and had an assist to help the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Friday.

Kaiden Guhle had a goal and an assist, and Jacob Fowler made 20 saves for the Canadiens (5-3-2), who are 2-0-1 in their past three games.

“Yeah, we’ve been in this position a lot,” Evans said about trying to hold onto leads after Montreal blew a two-goal, third-period lead in a 4-3 overtime loss against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday. “We’re lucky it’s early in the year and we can correct it. We want to be winning a lot more hockey games and to do that, you have to be in a good position in the third, play a mature game, and we did that.”

The Canadiens will next play the Winnipeg Jets in the 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, TNT, truTV, HBO MAX).

“It’s my 11th year and I’ve never played in one, so I’m really excited,” Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson said. “My kids are coming, my wife, my parents. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I played in one in college. It’s such a different atmosphere and it’ll be a lot of fun.”

Connor Bedard scored the lone goal, and Spencer Knight made 24 saves for the Blackhawks (3-7-0), who have lost two in a row.

“Yeah, tough,” Bedard said. “The first two periods, I thought we were the better team. We had our looks. That’s hockey. You get looks, they go down the other way and bury one. Maybe you’re trying to do too much, myself included. Yeah, it’s frustrating to lose whenever you lose, for sure.”

Bedard put Chicago ahead 1-0 at 4:23 of the first period, taking a backhand feed from Patrick Kane in the neutral zone, skating into the offensive zone and roofing a wrist shot past Fowler’s glove.

Evans tied the game 1-1 at 17:29 with his first goal of the season. He picked up a one-touch pass from Kirby Dach along the goal line to the left of the net, swung out in front and beat Knight glove side.

Evans’ short-handed goal at 7:45 of the second period put the Canadiens up 2-1. Evans moved down the left side on a 2-on-1 rush and scored on a wrist shot from the left face-off dot.

“Something we can’t do,” Bedard said of giving up the short-handed goal. “Our power play had a ton of looks tonight. I thought we were snapping it around. Then we’d give up chances. They had probably two or three 2-on-1s that obviously can’t happen. We can’t be giving those up.”

The Blackhawks were 0-for-5 on the power play. The Canadiens were 0-for-3.

Guhle pushed the lead to 3-1 at 18:26 with a wrist shot from the left point that found the net through traffic. Josh Anderson provided a screen in front, preventing Knight from seeing the puck.

“Yeah, gritty road win,” Guhle said. “First period was shaky, then kind of came alive in the second, got a lead and kept it. That’s the way you script a road win.”

Matheson, who missed the previous four games with a lower-body injury, scored his first goal of the season on an empty net at 17:22 of the third period to secure the 4-1 final.

Montreal played without captain Nick Suzuki, who will be out 2-4 weeks because of an upper-body injury. It was the first time the 27-year-old forward missed a game in the NHL since making his debut in the 2019-20 season.

“With Nick going down, I think everyone felt like they needed to take another step in their game,” Evans said. “It wasn’t the prettiest win, I don’t think, but I’m happy to have a third one with the team. I think we played a smarter game and didn’t give them too much.”

NOTES: Blackhawks defenseman Ian Cole joined Ryan McDonagh as the second defenseman from the 2007 NHL Draft to skate in 1,000 NHL games. Cole finished minus-1 with two blocks in 18:22 of ice time. ... Chicago defenseman Bowen Byram missed his third straight game with an upper-body injury. He is listed as day to day. ... The Blackhawks activated forward Andrew Mangiapane off injured reserve before the game. He missed eight games after sustaining a lower-body injury in the season opener on Sept. 29 and was a healthy scratch.