Coming off a narrow 4-3 shootout loss to the LA Kings, Edmonton started their first back-to-back game on the road with a 3-1 win over Chicago.

The Oilers won out via relentless pressure from all four lines that kept the Blackhawks hemmed in praying for saves from Spencer Knight. Knight was great to start the game and stopped 8 shots in the first period before succumbing to the Oilers pressure. Bouchard was able to beat his man and Zach Hyman established himself in the crease for a redirect goal.

16 seconds into the second period Ryan Nugent-Hopkins launched a bomb on Spencer Knight that got deflected high; Evan Bouchard grabbed the airborne puck and shot the errant rubber off the back of Knight’s skate before the Blackhawks could figure out where the puck had landed.

Chicago wouldn’t score their first goal until the final five minutes. Wyatt Kaiser sent a snapshot from the slot, Ingram saved it, but the rebound went directly to the left side for Tyler Bertuzzi to clean up the rebound.

The Blackhawks rally was too little, too late. Edmonton clamped down on the defence for the dying minutes until Bouchard sealed their fate with an empty net goal from across the ice. Leon Draisaitl added insult to injury on the very next draw by intercepting a sloppy pass in Chicago’s end and slingshotting the puck past Knight for his third goal allowed of the evening.

Edmonton was facing a team down two young star talents; they could have played a light game, but instead they laid on the gas. The Oilers circled around the Hawks with so much tenacity that Artyom Levshunov, a second pair right-wing D-man, was stuck on the ice for over five and a half minutes (that’s about 660% longer than the average shift). The Oilers out shot, out hit, and out worked the Blackhawks to get back into the win column.

Maybe this is the start of a three-game winstreak, unseen by this club for over 270 days.

Edmonton faces Nashville tomorrow night at 6:30 MST.