McDavid has hat trick, Oilers outlast Blackhawks on Draisaitl goal
CHICAGO – Leon Draisaitl scored with 38 seconds left in the third period, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-5 at United Center on Thursday.
Draisaitl’s winning goal also came on his 27th birthday.
“That’s the best present [I’ve ever] got,” Draisaitl said.
Video: EDM@CHI: Draisaitl’s late 3rd period goal wins it
Connor McDavid scored his second hat trick of the season and had an assist for the Oilers (5-3-0), who won 3-1 at the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. Jack Campbell made 31 saves.
“It was a little ugly, pretty at some moments,” McDavid said. “I thought we just found a way tonight. It was a wild one for sure, lots of ups and downs, lots of emotion. It’s good to get a win. Some nights you have your stuff, and that was one of those nights. I felt pretty good all night and made some things happen. It was a big win. A lot of guys stepped up.”
Video: EDM@CHI: McDavid completes the hat trick for the lead
Patrick Kane and Max Domi each had a goal and two assists for the Blackhawks (4-3-0), who had won four in a row. Alex Stalock made 32 saves.
“I think we deserved some points,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “[We] fight back at the end, and we’ve got to make sure it’s a lesson we know. You can never let that happen in your own building or on the road, but especially in your own building. We worked hard, we were in a spirited game physically, we hung with them, we skated with them, special teams were pretty close to what their special teams were.”
Video: EDM@CHI: Nugent-Hopkins scores PPG in 3rd period
Zach Hyman gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 10:29 of the first period from the bottom of the left face-off circle after a cross-ice pass from McDavid.
Andreas Athanasiou tied it 1-1 when he took a pass from Domi and scored on a breakaway at 13:20.
Chicago went up 2-1 at 15:38 on goal by Reese Johnson, who had not played since Oct. 13. Johnson picked up the rebound of Caleb Jones‘ shot from the right point and backhanded it for his first goal of the season.
McDavid tied it 2-2 just 18 seconds into the second period, skating down the left side and firing a wrist shot over Stalock’s left shoulder.
Jonathan Toews put the Blackhawks back ahead 3-2 at 1:33 on the power play. Toews, standing at the top of the crease, tipped in a shot from Domi at the left circle.
McDavid made it 3-3 on the power play at 8:28. His shot hit Stalock and deflected up and over him following a cross-ice pass from Draisaitl.
Domi scored to give Chicago a 4-3 lead on a 5-on-3 power play at 16:46.
There were 14 minor penalties called in the second period.
“I thought we started the game well, and then it became a lot of penalties,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I thought our penalty-kill competed hard. Our power play got the job done and found a way to get two points on the road. We’ll bank them and move on. It wasn’t exactly our script. It wasn’t how we wanted to win the game, but in the end, we found a result.”
Video: EDM@CHI: Hyman puts the finish on McDavid’s pass
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tied it 4-4 at 24 seconds of the third after Draisaitl passed the puck through the crease from behind the net.
McDavid stickhandled past Jake McCabe for a power-play goal at 10:16 to put Edmonton ahead 5-4 and complete the hat trick.
Kane tied it 5-5 on a rebound at 16:49.
“You tie it with three minutes left and you think you’re giving yourself a good chance at a point, and [Draisaitl] finds those open areas,” Kane said. “That’s what he’s so good at, that’s why he scores so many goals. “It would’ve been nice to get a point, at least.”
NOTES: It was McDavid’s 12th NHL hat trick. He became the second player in Oilers history to score multiple hat tricks within their first 10 games of a season, following Glenn Anderson in 1987-88 … Kane had two assists, reaching 756 in his NHL career to pass Doug Weight (755) for fifth on the all-time list among U.S.-born players.
