The Canadiens are third in the Atlantic Division, moving to two points ahead of the idle Boston Bruins, who have played one more game. Montreal pulled to within four points of the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning, who lost 4-3 in overtime to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
“If you look at our schedule, we play a lot of good teams or teams that are pushing for the playoffs,” Evans said. “So it’s going to be tighter games, harder games, and I think we’re adapting right now pretty well.”
Damon Severson scored and Greaves made 18 saves for Columbus (38-23-11), which has lost two of three.
“I think we played a really good game tonight,” Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. “Both goalies played well. We created a bunch, we just weren’t able to get that second one.”
Severson left at 11:59 of the third period because of an upper-body injury.
“We’ll get an update on him later but he’s a big part of our team,” Columbus coach Rick Bowness said. “He scored a great goal for us tonight and hopefully it’s not as bad. We’ll see what it looks like.”
The Blue Jackets are tied for third in the Metropolitan Division with the New York Islanders, who have played one more game, and one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, who moved into second place with a 4-3 overtime win at the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.
All three members of Montreal’s top line ended lengthy point streaks. Juraj Slafkovsky, who had scored in three consecutive games, and Nick Suzuki each had seven-game streaks end, and Cole Caufield snapped a six-game point streak after scoring four goals in his past two games, and seven during his streak.
“We can’t rely on our top guys all the time,” Evans said. “A lot of us, we don’t want to force anything and play a simpler game than some of our more skilled guys. But we do need to help out a lot and we can’t rely on one line to produce.”
Mason Marchment shot wide of the right post with 37 seconds remaining when he got to a loose puck sitting behind Dobes in the crease after Adam Fantilli shot from the slot.
“We certainly played well enough to get that game into at least overtime and get a point,” Bowness said. “But that’s hockey. Give their goalie some credit. But I like the way we’re playing 5-on-5. We’re getting our looks and some games the puck just won’t go in the net. But as I told the guys after, ‘You play 10 more games like that, I really like our chances.”
Struble put Montreal up 1-0 at 9:54 of the first period to end his drought.
“I felt like I was never going to score again, so it was nice,” Struble said.
He drove in from the left point to take Bolduc’s pass at the left face-off dot before snapping a shot past Greaves stick side after failing to score in his previous 87 games.
“I was yelling, I was screaming, but it was a nice pass,” Struble said.
Said Bolduc: “I heard him. Jayden has been playing good hockey lately for us and I’m just super happy for him.”
