In Edmonton, the Oilers played without Connor McDavid, who is sidelined with an injury, but it didn’t slow the effort as Leon Draisaitl scored once and assisted on three goals in a 5-3 thumping of the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
“Our goalie was great again,” Draisaitl said. “I thought we were a little shaky at the beginning. They have some skill over there too and sometimes you just can’t really do anything against world-class skill, but I thought we stuck with it, we battled, and it was a big two points for us.”
Mike Smith made 38 saves in the win.
The Oilers had to rally from two deficits to get the win.
Brandon Saad, Jonathan Toews and Adam Boqvist were the Blackhawks strikers.
“We had a very good third, had desperation in our game,” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We had some chances and our play was better, but the first two periods were very much up and down and I think there were portions of the first 40 minutes where we were really good and might take control of things. But we weren’t sharp all the time [and] they made us pay.”
Kailer Yamamoto struck for two Oilers goals.
“Since [Yamamoto] has come up, he just goes and gets pucks, he’s all over the ice getting pucks,” Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “I think he surprises a lot of [defensemen] with how quick he is. If he gets beat, all of a sudden he gets right back in there. He has a good stick and creates a lot of opportunities for us.
“With Connor out, you don’t replace him, but it was a good night for [Yamamoto] to create a lot of offense.”
Nugent-Hopkins and Riley Sheahan added single markers in the win.
“Draisaitl was really good tonight, making a lot of plays,” Chicago’s Patrick Kane said. “Seems like he has chemistry with [Ryan] Nugent-Hopkins and the Yamamoto kid. That line’s been good for them and they were really good tonight. We knew they were going to create some, but it would have been nice to limit their chances a little bit more.”
[WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Oilers highlights]
Robin Lehner made 26 saves in the loss.
“It was a tough one to let slip away from us,” Lehner said. “They were pretty good in the first period, they had a lot of high-quality chances and they got four goals off of Grade-A scoring chances and rebounds. I would like the puck to stick with me a little better, but I thought every one of those goals was a high-scoring chance.”
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