GAME RECAP: Oilers 7, Blackhawks 3

EDMONTON, AB - Call it a vacation well earned.
In their final game before the NHL All-Star break, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 7-3 at Rogers Place on Saturday night. The win gave the Oilers points their last eight contests heading into the break with a 7-0-1 record since Jan. 11.
The Oilers saw a pair of tallies from Tyson Barrie, while Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Connor McDavid, Evander Kane and Ryan McLeod all scored on the evening.
While Jack Campbell started the contest, he would not finish it.
Stuart Skinner did not dress on the evening due to an illness, leading to the Oilers dressing University of Alberta Golden Bears goaltender Matt Berlin as the emergency backup goaltender (EBUG) on the night. Leading by four late in the game, Jay Woodcroft let the 25-year-old Edmonton product live out his dream and play the final 2:26 of the contest.
Berlin made a single save in the Oilers win, and it capped off a feel-good night for the Blue & Orange by giving the local product a memory he likely won't soon forget.
"First and foremost, we meant no disrespect to Chicago or anything that. We were just trying to give a cool moment to someone that was here and obviously lived out a dream to play in the NHL," Connor McDavid said after the game. "He's obviously still young and playing for a real good program there at the U of A, and maybe we'll see him in the League one day."
The Oilers will now enter the NHL All-Star break with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Stuart Skinner representing the Blue & Orange down in Florida. Once the NHL schedule resumes, Edmonton will immediately head out on a four-game road trip to Detroit, Philadelphia, Ottawa and Montreal which starts in the Motor City on Feb. 7 and ends against the Canadiens on Feb. 13.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

GAME DAY
Photo Gallery
Full Highlights
Look Back at the In-Game Blog
POST-GAME VIDEO
OILERS TODAY | Post-Game vs. CHI
POST-RAW | Coach Woodcroft
POST-RAW | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
POST-RAW | Connor McDavid
POST-RAW | Darnell Nurse
POST-RAW | Matt Berlin
POST-GAME UPDATES
Inside The Oilers Blog

FIRST BLOOD

There are certain plays that are momentum-killers for a team, and a selfish penalty in the offensive zone certainly ranks at or near the top of that list.
With the Blackhawks leading on the shot clock by a 4-0 advantage and the ice firmly tilted in their favour, an ill-advised penalty by Seth Jones gave the Oilers the momentum they needed.
After getting tangled up behind the net with Darnell Nurse and hitting the ice, Jones got back up and immediately delivered an unnecessary shot to the Oilers defenceman in plain view of the officials. The Blackhawks defenceman was sent to the box 4:57 into the opening period and he exited the box 23 seconds later with Rogers Place roaring and the Oilers power-play dapping gloves.
It was Tyson Barrie who got credit for his sixth goal of the season, with his long point shot finding its way beyond a screening Zach Hyman and in behind Petr Mrazek off his blocker for the 1-0 Oilers advantage.

FULL TILT

Brett Kulak dropped the gloves and the entire Oilers bench responded.
The pesky Sam Lafferty, who is third among Chicago forwards in hits with 70, had been playing his usual style of game before Kulak had enough. The Oilers defenceman squared off against the Hollidaysburg, Penn. native in a spirited tilt with 7:59 remaining in the second frame.
The Oilers took the energy generated from the scrap and ran with it, rattling off three goals in the next 2:33 to extend their lead to 5-1.
First, it was Barrie picking up his second goal of the night by sneaking in behind Mrazek and tapping in a loose puck behind the goaltender.
The Captain got involved next, showing some great patience behind the Blackhawks net before McDavid beat Seth Jones around the blue paint and whipped a backhand goal past the Chicago netminder for his league-leading 41st goal of the season.
Lastly, it was Hyman's turn to light the lamp. The gritty forward redirected a Ryan McLeod feed out of mid-air for his 26th of the season and the Oilers fifth of the night. The goal brings Hyman within a single tally of tying his career-high of 27 which he set last season in his first year wearing Oilers colours. The Toronto, ON native's three-point night also allowed him to break the 60-point plateau for the first time in his NHL career -- impressively doing it before the NHL All-Star break.

SAVE OF THE GAME

The Chicago Blackhawks came into the night's contest playing their best hockey of the season and they put the pressure on the Oilers early, but Campbell was up to the task.
Roughly three-and-a-half minutes into the game, Jonathan Toews lost the puck driving the Edmonton net and it was left sitting alone in the slot. Former Oiler Caleb Jones quickly picked up the loose garbage and fired a shot towards Campbell for point-blank range, but the goaltender swiftly flashed the leather and gloved the dangerous opportunity.
Soup has looked like his old self since the start of the new year. Coming into Saturday's contest, Campbell had won five straight starts and owned a 6-2 record, 2.14 goals-against average and .913 save percentage in his previous nine appearances.

BERLIN WALL

Oilers All-Star Stuart Skinner would end up being a late scratch on the evening due to an illness, forcing the Oilers to use an emergency backup goaltender on the evening.
It would be University of Alberta Golden Bears netminder Matt Berlin who would step up to the plate for the Oilers. The 25-year-old got the full NHL experience with his own rookie lap while his brilliant Green & Gold pads stuck out like a sore thumb among the Oilers Reverse Retro jerseys.
Saturday would not be the first time Berlin has filled in for Skinner. The Edmonton native was Skinner's backup at South Side Athletic Club all the way back in 2012-13. While Berlin just expected to have the best seats he's ever had to watch the Oilers play, with 2:27 left in the game, his dreams came true.
With a four-goal lead, Head Coach Jay Woodcroft tapped the goaltender on the shoulder inciting a roar from the Rogers Place crowd. It wasn't a busy night, with Berlin blockering aside a single Caleb Jones shot in his NHL stint, but it's a moment he likely won't ever forget.

PLAY OF THE GAME

While the Oilers poured on the goals on Saturday night, none of them meant more than the snipe by number 91.
Evander Kane scored his sixth goal of the season, but his first since suffering a devastating wrist injury back on Nov. 8 that forced the 31-year-old to miss over two months of action. The wrist looked pretty good when Kane received a Draisaitl drop pass and quickly snapped the inch-perfect shot by Mrazek, garnering a huge celebration and a big hug from the German.
Kane is working his way back into the form that saw him light it up in Blue & Orange, scoring 22 regular season goals in 43 games last seson before ramping his game even higher in the playoffs with 13 goals in 15 post-season contests.

PARTING WORDS

Berlin on the opportunity to make his NHL debut:
"The whole day was a whirlwind, but the finish to the day was unbelievable. It's a special moment I'll never forget for the rest of my life."
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on his overall thoughts on the game:
"I thought we did a good job. Obviously they came out hard at us early in the game and a couple of power plays, but I thought in the second we just started to stick with it, keep playing our game and slowly kind of push them back and we just kind built off that second period and went from there. I thought overall we should be happy with that 60 and take some positives going to the break here."
Darnell Nurse on the All-Star Break:
"I think this is a good chance to recharge. You look at our schedule after the break and it's almost every other day, so for us, it's a good opportunity to rest up a bit and come back with that same focus. I think our mindset of just taking it one day at a time has really been there for the last month or so, and for us, it's got to be the same way when we get back."

Nurse on the Oilers strong second halfs:
"I don't know. It's just our game this year, it seems like we built it. We built it and things started to come together since the Christmas break. So for us, we want to continue with those strides. Like I said, the break is good for us to be able to rest and recover, but when we get back, we got to maintain that mindset that got us to this point."
Connor McDavid on Tyson Barrie scoring his second goal of the night:
"Yeah he was joking that he hadn't had a shot on goal in a week so I think he was just trying to get it on that and good for him to score a couple."
McDavid on what is helping the Oilers succeed in January:
"I think depth. We're getting contributions up and down the lineup. I've talked a little bit about this, it's not even goals. It's Kulak with a huge fight tonight, Jesse has played physical, Klimmer's played physical and up and down the lineup, we've been getting contributions. When everybody's bought in and going, it's a treat."