Cam Talbot, Oilers end Blackhawks winning streak

Cam Talbot made 38 saves for the Edmonton Oilers in a 3-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center on Saturday.
Matt Benning, Milan Lucic and Connor McDavid scored for the Oilers (32-19-8), who extended their winning streak to three games.
Richard Panik scored and Corey Crawford made 19 saves for the Blackhawks (35-18-5) in their first game after a five-day break. The loss ended Chicago's five-game winning streak.

WATCH: All Oilers vs. Blackhawks highlights
"There's two positives to the night, we got the points and Cam played tremendous," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "After that, there wasn't a lot of positives out of that game, I didn't think."
The Blackhawks outshot the Oilers 12-4 in a 0-0 first period. Artemi Panarin had the best chance of the period, hitting the goal post with 18 seconds left.
"I didn't mind how we played, excellent first period and nothing to show for it," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "At the same time, they get a fortunate break off our skate and then they were alright in the third. We still generated enough throughout the game, didn't give up much. We'd probably be happy with that effort, that game most nights, and generally, would come out with something better than a loss."

Benning gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 5:02 of the second period on the power play on a fortunate bounce in front of the Chicago net. Benning collected a loose puck in the corner and threw it in front where it hit the skate of Blackhawks defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk and bounced in past Crawford.
Lucic put Edmonton up 2-0 at 9:50 of the third period, outmuscling Blackhawks defenseman Michal Kempny for the puck, then shooting it through the pads of Crawford.
Panik scored at 15:13 to make it 2-1.
"[Talbot] played a good game," Blackhawks forward Ryan Hartman said. "I think we probably could've gotten some shots up, shoot a little more and had some chances. He kind of sprawls a little bit and I think we just need to get pucks up a little more and we would've had a couple more goals."
McDavid scored into an empty net with 27 seconds left with Crawford pulled for an extra skater. The goal was McDavid's 20th of the season.
"This game, we just came out and tried to get two points in a tough building to play in," Talbot said. "We let that one go a while ago [5-1 loss against Blackhawks on Feb. 11] we knew it wasn't our best game and we had a couple of good games throughout this week and we were just trying to keep that going."

Goal of the game

Panik took a pass in front of the net from Jonathan Toews out of the corner, waited out Talbot and shot the puck over the sprawled goaltender.

Save of the game

Crawford slid across his net and made a pad save on McDavid 58 seconds into the third period.

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Unsung performance of the game

Artem Anisimov hustled back to strip Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the puck on a shorthanded breakaway with 2:54 left in the first period.

Highlight of the game

Lucic fought off Kempny for the puck in the Blackhawks zone, went in and scored the winning goal.

They said it

"I thought the shot selection around the net wasn't great, whether it wasn't the feel of it or didn't sense the timing of it, anticipating the puck where it was. We missed a lot of opportunities that could've been high-quality chances that didn't even get developed and we did have some good chances." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville
"It might have been one of, if not, our worst period of the season. The way we came out and the way he kept us in there was huge and the reason why we won tonight was the way he played all game long, especially in the first period." -- Oilers forward Milan Lucic on goaltender Cam Talbot
"I can't speak for the other teams that came off it, but I think we worked pretty hard today. We had a lot of chances, we just couldn't find the back of the net. We feel if we had a little bit more puck luck around the net, that game could have had a different outcome." -- Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews on playing the first game after a five-day break

Need to know

Toews had an assist to give him 600 NHL points (262 goals, 338 assists). … McDavid has a goal and three assists in three games against the Blackhawks. Edmonton has more wins with 23 games left to play this season than it had all last season.

What's next

Oilers: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, SNW, NHL.TV)
Blackhawks: At the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)