GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Blackhawks 4

CHICAGO, IL - It wouldn't be the Windy City if it weren't for deep dish.
The Edmonton Oilers utilized some solid passing on Wednesday night in a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center to secure their third straight victory in the first of back-to-back road games and improve to 13-10-0.
"There's been some wins that were hard to come by, but it's huge to get on that run," forward Mattias Janmark said. "We're not satisfied with our record, so we've just got to keep building and we can't be satisfied with the three wins in a row and the record we have. We just got to keep moving forward here and get more wins."
Leon Draisaitl had two goal and an assist while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Mattias Janmark and Connor McDavid each had a goal and an assist in the victory. The captain reached 40 points on the season with his 18th goal of the campaign early in the third period.
Goals from Janmark, McDavid and Draisaitl in the final frame would be vital after the Blackhawks pulled the game back to within one in the second half of the third period with two goals in 19 seconds, and another later with the goalie pulled for the extra attacker.
"It was a little scrambled in the end, but we won and that's the really important thing," forward Jesse Puljujarvi said.
The Oilers wrap up their road back-to-back with the opportunity to make it four wins in a row Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center against the Minnesota Wild.
"Yeah, it's really good. We had those little rough games and now we have a couple of wins," Puljujarvi added. "It's all over again tomorrow and [we need] a couple of points in Minnesota."

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

GAME DAY
Photo Gallery
Full Highlights
Look Back at the In-Game Blog
POST-GAME VIDEO
OILERS TODAY | Post-Game at CHI
POST-RAW | Coach Woodcroft
POST-RAW | Jesse Puljujarvi
POST-RAW | Mattias Janmark
POST-GAME UPDATES
Inside The Oilers Blog

NO HELP FOR HYMAN

Zach Hyman just hasn't been able to buy a goal lately.
The winger had a beautiful spin-around attempt from the slot before the ten-minute mark of the opening period strike the inside of the post and roll out the other side of the Blackhawks net, where he collected his rebound and had his second attempt stopped by Arvid Soderblom.
Just over five minutes later, Hyman had the puck in the net on the powerplay after going bar down from between the hashmarks, but a coach's challenge from the Chicago bench for goaltender interference was successful after Hyman was deemed to have pushed defenceman Seth Jones into Soderblom to prevent the netminder from having a chance to make the save.
It was the second game in a row that the Toronto product had one of his goals overturned. He's goalless in five games, but has still been a major driver of the Oilers success with his hard work and offensive output -- including three assists in Monday's 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers.

FIRST BLOOD

We like that. We like that a lot.
The Oilers orchestrated a slick offensive-zone exchange to set up the go-ahead goal just 54 seconds into the second period. Brett Kulak left a pass to Darnell Nurse, who orbited the right circle in Chicago's zone before throwing a dart to the back post for Leon Draisaitl, who eagerly awaited the feed that he slid into the empty net for his 14th goal of the season after Soderblom was taken right out of the play.
Nurse collected the primary helper in his 500th NHL game on Wednesday night. This season, the Doc has collected three goals and 10 assists in 23 games, including a mini two-game point streak after posting an assist in the Florida victory.

KEEP THE CONNECTIONS COMING

The feeds were flowing on Wednesday night, with the Bison King setting up Nugent-Hopkins with a behind-the-net, backhand pass that made it a 2-0 lead for the Oilers.
Facing the boards behind Chicago's cage before the midpoint of the middle frame, Jesse Puljujarvi had his head up to pick out the incoming Nugent-Hopkins striding towards goal after first finding the Finnish forward down low from the halfwall. Picking up the pass, Nugent-Hopkins one-touched a snap shot over the right shoulder of Soderblom for the 2-0 Edmonton advantage.

"Yeah, I felt good there with Nuge and Janmark," Puljujarvi said. "Janmark makes those little plays, and then when we have the chance to shoot, we shoot. A nice couple of goals with those guys."
After the Blackhawks made the most of a failed defensive-zone escape from the Oilers through defenceman Boris Katchouk with 5:27 to go before the second intermission, the Oilers led by 2-1 on the scoresheet and 25-13 on the shot clock through 40 minutes.

MORE DISHES, MORE GOALS

Leaning into the theme of nice passes from tonight, it wouldn't be Chicago if it wasn't deep dish.
It was just a short one on Edmonton's third goal, but Draisaitl chipped a rimmed puck from Brett Kulak to a streaking McDavid, who took it the rest of the 180 feet or so up the ice and ripped a wrister right side on Soderblom that tucked itself inside the right post for the Captain's 18th goal and 40th point of the season in the 23rd game of the campaign.

Right on the ten-minute mark of the third, Nugent-Hopkins delivered the sauce right onto the pizza for Mattias Janmark, who one-timed the 4-1 advantage for Edmonton into the top shelf of the oven.
After the Blackhawks scored twice in 19 seconds in the final half of the third period to make it 4-3 with time remaining, Draisaitl's 2-on-1 conversion with McDavid inside the final five minutes provided vital insurance to help stem the tide against some late Blackhawks powerplays -- incuding a four-minute high-sticking call to Nugent-Hopkins that led to Max Domi scoring his second of two PP tallies in the game.

"I thought were in control for most of the game," Janmark said. "Obviously we got that cushion toward the end and then kind of took a few penalties. They get a chance to score, get that one goal, and then we get out for the shift after and give another one up. Then you can feel the crowd is kind of getting into it and they're close, and then obviously we get another one. That was huge."
"You don't want to give up those goals, but also we found a way to win anyway, so that's good."

SAVE OF THE GAME

Stuart Skinner made 21 stops for his sixth victory of the season and he saved his best for last as the Blackhawks were pressing for the 5-5 equalizer with their goalie on the bench for an extra attacker.
Patrick Kane had the puck behind the Oilers net and threaded the needle to Taylor Raddysh who had crept into the slot, but the Edmonton goaltender smothered the one-timer attempt to preserve the win with just 14 seconds left on the clock. Draisaitl won the ensuing faceoff and the Oilers salted away the remaining moments in the corner to secure the two points.

PARTING WORDS

Puljujarvi on Edmonton grinding out a win despite some tough travel:
"Yeah it's part of the NHL. We have a lot of games that we have to travel. [We need to] be smart and get good recovery and help us win."
Janmark on the feeling on the Oilers bench when the Blackhawks came back in the game:
"Like I said, you felt the crowd come alive and then went out and scored another one, which is hard to do. That's huge. And then they came back, got another one, and got a four-minute power play there that we managed to kill off. We got some good saves down the stretch there and yeah, good win.

Coach Woodcroft on securing another hard-fought road win in Chicago:
"Yeah, we found a way to get two points, and that was our goal heading into the game to have total commitment to get the result and we got a result today."