Chicago oust Oilers in dream encore

Edmonton Oilers vs Chicago Blackhawks 1-3 (1-2, 0-1, 0-0)

After having their 5 game win streak broken against the Blackhawks last game, Edmonton travelled to Chicago to embark on their final road trip of the year - that would culminate in a Battle of Alberta in Calgary in game 82. Nik Khabibulin started this one, but no other changes were made to the lines.

Edmonton opened the game very encouragingly, rapidly building an impressive shot advantage - and Brooks Laich found the net on the ninth shot of the game, putting the Oil in front. All the lines were doggedly keeping Chicago pinned in their own zone and the shot clock showed 13-0 in shots after fifteen minutes, that having included a full four minutes of power play time for the home side. But as stats may be misleading, this game was a pure bred example, and the Hawks scored on their first shot - a blueline blast from Cam Barker. When their second attempt of the night also went by Khabibulin, coach Kevin Constantine was forced to make this game the reverse of the last. Hiller replaced Khabibulin after he had allowed goals on the first two shots.

Chicago established a firm grip of the game in the second, but in no way dominated offensively. Instead, increased defensive efforts kept the opposition in check. Still, a poor clearance from Smid gave Seabrook the chance to unleash a shot from far out, and it rocketed by Hiller to send the Blackhawks up by two.

Edmonton tried in various ways to open up Chicago's defense in the third, but apart from a few nice shifts by the top two lines, there was little in terms of a concerted attempt to come back.


Post game: "Obviously we were let down by our goaltending early, but we also show we're not quite mature enough as a team to handle those kinds of situations - and they do happen - and that is a major area we must improve in" stated General Manager Morgan Kowalski. Jonas Hiller redeemed himself by having a solid game, allowing just the Seabrook-goal on 27 shots.


Scoreboard
1st Period:
EDM - Laich (Brule, Tangradi)
CHI - Barker (Hossa, Toews) PP
CHI - Persson (Sharp, Ladd) PP

2nd Period:
CHI - Seabrook (-)

3rd Period:
-


Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

Lines:
Tangradi - Laich - Brule
Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
O'Sullivan - Cogliano - Moore
Moreau - Falardeau - O'Marra

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Petry

Khabibulin
(Hiller)