The Blackhawks’ struggles deepened on Wednesday night, February 5th, as they fell to the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in overtime, marking their third consecutive loss in a hard-fought battle that saw the Oilers grab their second straight win at United Center. A late-game heroics by Alec Martinez, who scored to tie the game 3-3, gave Chicago a glimmer of hope and sent the contest into overtime. That hope was short-lived, however, as Zach Hyman sealed the deal early into overtime for the Oilers with the game-winning goal in the extra period. Both Lukas Reichel and Ryan Donato also scored for the Blackhawks, and Leon Draisaitl, Viktor Arvidsson, and Jeff Skinner scored the three goals in regulation for Edmonton. The Blackhawks host the Nashville Predators on Friday, and the Oilers will be heading to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers on February 22nd after returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Chicago Blackhawks Lineup:
Slaggart – Bedard – Donato
Teravainen – Dickinson – Mikheyev
Foligno – Nazar – Bertuzzi
Maroon – Reichel – Smith
Martinez – Jones
Vlasic – Murphy
Del Mastro – Brodie
Soderblom
Mrazek
Edmonton Oilers Lineup:
Arvidsson – McDavid – Hyman
Skinner – Draisaitl – Podkolzin
Janmark – Nugent-Hopkins – Brown
Perry – Henrique – Kapanen
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Klingberg
Kulak – Emberson
Pickard
Skinner
Viktor Arvidsson got things started for Edmonton after a scoreless opening frame when he picked up his seventh of the season, firing a wrister from the left face-off circle at 11:09 of the second period. Mattias Janmark got the puck after the Oilers and Blackhawks were fighting to grab ahold of it, he then made a backhanded drop pass to Arvidsson as Ethan Del Mastro was onto him. Later into the middle frame, Lukas Reichel knotted it up 1-1 for his fifth goal of the season when he tipped in a shot from Teuvo Teravainen, who shot from the right circle after carrying it into the Oilers’ zone, passing it off to Ilya Mikheyev, who sent it right back before firing it as Reichel raced to the front of the net with just seconds remaining in the second.
Early into the third period, Jeff Skinner untied the knot to regain the lead for the Oilers 2-1 at 18:49 on his 10th of the season. John Klingberg passed the puck to Vasily Podkolzin, who fired the puck along the boards to head over to Leon Draisaitl, and Skinner took a pass in front of the net, going forehand to backhand. Draisaitl increased the Edmonton lead to 3-1 with 11:42 on the clock when Skinner intercepted a Chicago pass above the blue line, passing it to Draisaitl, who put the puck past Arvid Soderblom from the slot. Ryan Donato struck on the power play to cut it to 3-2 off a pass from Teuvo Teravainen, who got the puck from Connor Bedard before passing it off to Donato for his 16th of the season. With 3:44 remaining in regulation, Alec Martinez tied it back up 3-3 on a one-timer from the right circle when he received a cross-ice pass from Donato to put it past Calvin Pickard.
Zach Hyman put the puck home early into overtime with a power play goal, tipping in a pass by Connor McDavid for the 4-3 final.
Alec Martinez on performance, Jason Dickinson, how he would assess the team game overall: “I’m proud of the way the guys battled back, but I don’t know, I’m not really one for moral victories. Like I said, prior to the way the guys battled back, it’s a tough spot to put ourselves in. We all know who’s in the other locker rooms, some of the top players in the world, if not the top, so when you give them an opportunity, it puts us in a tough spot. …That’s a guy you can’t just replace. I mean obviously, he’s reliable, he’s good in the circle, he’s reliable defensively, and can contribute to both ends of the rink,” – “I thought we did a pretty good job. We had a solid F3, and we stayed over top of their speed. I thought that we consistently did that… A pretty good game, but in this league, you got to play 60 if you want to win, or 65 in this case.”
Game Notes:
– Arvid Soderblom made a total of 34 saves for Chicago.
– Teuvo Teravainen collected a pair of assists, and Ryan Donato recorded both a goal and an assist.
– Jason Dickinson had left the game in the second period, not returning for the remainder of the game putting only a little weight on his left leg as he headed back to the locker room.
– In his return after missing the past 11 games, Craig Smith had one block in 11:02 of ice time.
– The Blackhawks assigned both Artyom Levshunov and Colton Dach to Rockford of the AHL.
– Blackhawks: 16-31-6, Oilers: 34-16-4
– Clavin Pickard made a total of 29 saves for Edmonton.
– Both Leon Draisaitl and Jeff Skinner picked up both a goal and an assist. …With his goal, Skinner now has three goals in his past five games.
– Connor McDavid passed both Alex Ovechkin and Patrick Kane for sole possession of the third-most overtime points in NHL history when he notched the 42nd of his career.
– After missing the previous game, which had been against the St. Louis Blues due to an illness, Adam Henrique returned to the lineup.
– Becoming the third-fastest coach in league history to 80 wins, Kris Knoblauch sits behind only two others who reached this mark in fewer games, including Tom Johnson (111) and Mike Keenan (116).
ITR 41: Stanley Cup Final – The Rematch – Inside The Rink
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