Blackhawks defeat Oilers in Game 4 of Cup Qualifiers, win series

Dominik Kubalik scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period, and the Chicago Blackhawks advanced to the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday.

Kubalik gave Chicago the lead at 8:30 of the third with a short-side shot from the left circle off a pass from Jonathan Toews, who had two assists.

"To be honest, I didn't even take a look at the net," Kubalik said. "I was just trying to shoot it as quick as possible, take a one-timer if I can. I think it was a pretty quick play, so maybe he didn't expect it that quick. I just tried to go up. Really happy it went in."

WATCH: [All Oilers vs. Blackhawks highlights]

The Oilers were called for too many men on the ice with 2:03 remaining in the third period, negating a chance for a 6-on-5 situation in an attempt to tie the game.

"We needed to make a few less mistakes, and when you do make mistakes, it'd be nice to get a couple of extra stops there," Edmonton coach Dave Tippett said. "There are times when I thought we were doing a lot of good things, other times we took a step back. I guess that's just the growth of our team."

Corey Crawford made 43 saves for the Blackhawks, who will play the winner of a round-robin game Saturday between the Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference First Round in Edmonton, the Western Conference hub city.

Chicago, which hadn't made the playoffs since 2017, was 1-1-1 against Vegas and 1-3-0 against Colorado in the regular season.

"Both excellent teams," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "They've had great seasons and they're coming into this playoffs with the expectation that they're going to win the Cup. It's a great challenge for us. I'm happy that we get the opportunity."

Chicago was 12th in the Western Conference standings and 23rd in the NHL standings this season. Prior to this postseason, no team had ever won an NHL series finishing that low. The Montreal Canadiens (12th in the Eastern Conference, 24th in the NHL) eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier Friday.

"There's always going to be maybe unwarranted praise and criticism," Toews said. "I think our core group has always done a good job of not listening to either. We missed the playoffs for a couple years and you're bound to have people come down on you a little bit, but I don't think any of that has fazed us. We were pretty eager to get this chance and show what we can do. Technically, we just made the playoffs now, so the real fun begins."

Josh Archibald and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored, Connor McDavid had two assists, and Mikko Koskinen made 26 saves for the Oilers, who were the No. 5 seed.

Edmonton will have a 12.5 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft in the Second Phase of the NHL Draft Lottery on Monday.

"It's been a weird year, everyone can say that," McDavid said. "Coming back from the pause (for the coronavirus), you never know what it's going to be like. I thought we had a good training camp, everyone was good to go, you lose three of four and you don't get in. That's the way it goes."

Archibald gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead 45 seconds into the first period, scoring with a one-timer off a cross-ice pass from McDavid.

The Blackhawks responded when Brandon Saad tied it 1-1 at 5:16, scoring with a backhand on a wraparound. Prior to the goal, the Oilers won a face-off in their defensive zone, but Oscar Klefbom couldn't clear the puck.

"At that point there's a lot of time (following Archibald's goal). You can't look back, you've just got to look forward," Saad said. "For us to get an offensive zone face-off and to be able to capitalize, it definitely evens it out for us and gives us that confidence."

Matthew Highmore scored his second redirection goal in as many games at 7:56 of the first to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead.

Nugent-Hopkins tied it 2-2 at 2:02 of the second period.

"It's frustrating because we expected better," Tippett said. "In the regular season, we overachieved a little bit, and in this play-in series we underachieved."

Chicago was 5-for-5 on the penalty kill, and Crawford made 20 saves in the third period.

"I think we all know nowadays you've got to sneak in there and that first round, anything can happen," Toews said. "You see it right now, too. For us it didn't matter what seed we were. We knew what we were doing late in the season that helped us play good hockey and win games. We got right back to that."

NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report