In Chicago, the Blackhawks’ losing streak hit eight games on Wednesday night in a 5-4 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
After a scoreless first period, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored in the second period for the tenuous 2-0 lead over the Blackhawks.
Chicago cut the lead in half, 2-1, before the end of the frame.
The problem for the Blackhawks was they tried to go toe-to-toe with the Oilers in the third period, and that never ends well.
Stuart Skinner made 21 saves in the Oilers win.
Edmonton improved to 13-10-0.
The two teams traded three-goal efforts in the third period.
The Oilers broke out of the gate in the third with goals from Connor McDavid and Mattias Janmark to grab a 4-1 lead.
“Wins have been hard to come by, but it’s huge to get on that run,” Janmark said. “We’re not satisfied with our record. We’ve just got to keep building. We can’t be satisfied with the three wins in a row and the record we have. We’ve just got to keep on moving forward here and get more wins.”
Max Domi and MacKenzie Entwistle scored in reply to two-goal outburst to get back to within one, 4-3.had a goal in the third period exchange with the Oilers.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t get any points,” Entwistle said. “We have to work on playing hard defensively. That top line [of Edmonton] is pretty highly skilled, and we knew that coming into this game that you have to try to limit their chances. … It’s nice to score goals, but we have to keep them out of our net too.”
The Chicago skid is now 0-7-1, and they dropped to 6-12-4.
“If they’re on a 2-on-1, I think the damage is done,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said of Draisaitl and McDavid. “Even when they’re on a 2-on-4, it’s difficult. It really is. Oh, they’re special players, and putting them together, it’s a great idea.”
Draisaitl scored his second of the game to make it 5-3.
“We found a way to get two points,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “That was our goal heading into the game, to have total commitment to get the result, and we got a result tonight. What do I take away? We got the two points, and we’re ready to move on.”
Domi hit his second of the game on the power play with 71 seconds left on the clock.
Arvid Soderblom made 36 saves in the Chicago loss.
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