*Photo from KTVN*
Absolutely no one can stop Edmonton right now. Leon Draisaitl had 3 assists, Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks with a 3-0 victory on Thursday night in Edmonton.
The Oilers have surged to 3rd place in the Pacific Division with the tear they're on, winning their 15th straight game to improve to 28-15-1. They become only the 5th team in NHL history with at least 15 straight wins, with the 1992-1993 Pittsburgh Penguins holding the record with 17 straight wins.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said of the win streak that "Right now, the way the team’s started chasing teams, I think everyone’s just really excited to be moving up in the standings and giving ourselves a bit of breathing room. I think we’re trying to take it one game at a time. We’re just playing good enough to win right now. I think we’ve got a lot more in our group. As a coaching staff, we’re always pushing our guys to try and get better at something each day. And right now, I think we’ve been good enough to win games and that’s about it."
After the first period went by scoreless, the Oilers got on the board in the second period. On the power play 1:37 into the period, McDavid scored his 18th goal of the season to make it 1-0 with assists from Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
It remained 1-0 until the 3rd period. Zach Hyman found the back of the net 6:34 into the period, making it 2-0 on his 29th goal of the season with McDavid and Draisaitl assisting. With the net empty and 1:15 remaining on the clock, McDavid scored his second goal of the night with Draisaitl getting the lone assist.
Nugent-Hopkins said after the game that "We expected a tough game tonight, and they lived up to it for sure. But when we needed it, we got the saves from Pickard and we just kind of stuck around and played within ourselves and stayed confident. Every time he has stepped in, he has been outstanding for us. In the Detroit game, he made some huge saves to keep us in it and it was the same thing tonight."
Getting the start in net for the Oilers was Calvin Pickard, who stymied the Blackhawks all night to pick up his first shutout of the season. Pickard stopped all 27 shots he saw from the Blackhawks to improve to 5-2-0 in 7 starts.
It was Petr Mrazek who got the start in net for Chicago, getting tagged with the loss to drop to 12-18-1 in 31 starts. Mrazek turned aside 31 out of the 33 shots on goal the Oilers sent his way, recording a .939 save percentage.
Blackhawks forward MacKenzie Entwistle said of the loss that "Obviously, we couldn’t get it done. Close isn’t good enough. They’re a great team and have a lot of highly offensive guys who can put the puck in the net. It’s frustrating, but we stuck in there, we hung in there. We were in it until the end of the game, which was a good thing, but no goals is not good enough."
Up next, both teams get back in action on Saturday. The Oilers welcome the Nashville Predators to town as Stuart Skinner is slated to start. Mrazek is projected to start for the Blackhawks as they take on the Calgary Flames.
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