Canadiens Beat Blackhawks 4-1: Jake Evans Scores Twice, Fowler Stops 20 in First Game Without Suzuki Since 2018

There is winning without your captain, and then there is winning the way the Montreal Canadiens did on Friday night in Chicago. Down 1-0 early, missing Nick Suzuki for the first time since 2018, the Habs clamped down, leaned on their depth, and walked out of the United Center with a 4-1 win over the Blackhawks.

Jake Evans was the story. Two goals, one assist, three points — matching his career high — and a shorthanded goal that turned the game. Jacob Fowler stopped 20 shots in net, and Montreal heads into Sunday's outdoor Heritage Classic against Winnipeg looking like a team that has figured something out.

A bad break, then a response

It started badly, in the kind of way that makes you groan. Juraj Slafkovsky's dump-in bounced off a linesman, Patrick Kane pounced on the loose puck, and Connor Bedard — of course it was Bedard — rifled home his second goal of the season at 4:23 of the first period. The assist was the 897th of Kane's career, leaving him three short of becoming the first American-born player to reach 900.

Montreal did not panic. The Canadiens began to control the play through the middle of the period, limiting Chicago's chances, and Evans tied it with 2:31 left in the first, finishing a passing play from Kirby Dach and Owen Beck for his first goal of the season.

"Yeah, we've been in this position a lot," Evans said afterwards, referring to the team's habit of chasing games. He was talking about Tuesday's 4-3 overtime loss to San Jose, when Montreal blew a two-goal third-period lead. "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 second period belonged to Evans

Evans put Montreal ahead 7:51 into the second with a wrist shot over Spencer Knight's stick side — while killing a penalty, no less. Then, with 1:34 left in the period, he turned playmaker, feeding Kaiden Guhle for his first goal of the season to make it 3-1. Guhle also had an assist on the night, and his shot from the left point, screened by Josh Anderson, beat Knight on the stick side.

That was effectively the game. Chicago had five power plays on the night and could not convert one. Fowler, lightly tested after the first period, needed to make only three saves in the third. Mike Matheson added an empty-net goal with 2:38 remaining, assisted by Phillip Danault, to close out the 4-1 scoreline. Knight finished with 24 saves for Chicago, who have now lost two straight and sit at 3-7-0.

Bedard, for his part, was honest about the frustration. "Yeah, tough," he 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."

Life without Suzuki — and what comes next

Here is the number that tells you how remarkable this was: Friday was the first game Montreal played without Nick Suzuki in the lineup since before the team acquired him — along with Tomas Tatar and a 2019 second-round pick — from Vegas in the Max Pacioretty trade on September 10, 2018. The captain had also just won the 2026 Selke Trophy. Losing that presence, the Habs responded with a collective 200-foot game that would have made him proud.

The win lifts Montreal to 5-3-2, with a 2-0-1 record in their last three games and a 4-1-1 mark in their last six. And now comes the big one: Sunday's 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic against the Winnipeg Jets at Princess Auto Stadium, outdoors, at 7 p.m. ET.

"It's my 11th year and I've never played in one, so I'm really excited," 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."

Chicago, meanwhile, hosts Florida on Sunday, trying to stop the slide. Montreal travels to Winnipeg with something better than momentum: proof that this group can win a hard game without its best player. That is the kind of win that travels.

Photo: Jake Evans of the Montreal Canadiens (file photo). Credit: All-Pro Reels, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Sources

NHL.com — "Evans scores twice, Canadiens defeat Blackhawks" (24 Oct 2026)

TSN / The Associated Press — "Evans scores twice in Canadiens' victory over Blackhawks" (24 Oct 2026)

Montreal Canadiens / NHL.com — "MTL@CHI: Game recap" (24 Oct 2026)