RECAP: Blackhawks Battle to Overtime Before Falling to Oilers

EDMONTON -- Evan Bouchard scored at 2:43 of overtime to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Leon Draisaitl sent a pass across the crease, and Bouchard took a quick shot before putting his own rebound away.

“It started with those guys a few shifts before changing, getting them tired,” Bouchard said of putting the pressure on Chicago in overtime. “When you get a tired group with Connor (McDavid) and Leon out there, they’re going to make the play.

“I just tried to get open, Leon made a good pass and it went in."

McDavid assisted on all three goals, and Draisaitl and Bouchard each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers (6-4-3), who have points in four straight games (2-0-2). Stuart Skinner made 27 saves.

The Oilers are 4-0-2 at home, with three of those games going to overtime.

“We’re not playing our best hockey, and we knew at the beginning of the season that it was going to take a while to build this and get our identity,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. “It’s going to take a while. Some of it, we’ve solved things. Our schedule now is going to get a little more difficult.

“We’ve got a lot of change at the beginning of the season with the players that we have coming in. We’re trying to settle things out and put lines together with everyone understanding what our systems are and playing the way we know we can. It’s a long process and hopefully we’re trending in the right way.”

Tyler Bertuzzi and Andre Burakovsky scored for the Blackhawks (5-4-3), who are 1-2-1 in their past four games. Spencer Knight made 27 saves.

“You look at it, you take the point, go back to the drawing board and look what you can do better, and just keep rolling,” Knight said. “I think we’re starting to realize that you have to show up every single day.

“So, it’s a good test for us just to keep coming in, day in, day out and trying to replicate a good game.”

Draisaitl appeared to put the Oilers ahead 1-0 in the final second of the first period, sending a wrist shot from the right dot through the legs of Knight on the power play. But video review determined time had expired just prior to the puck crossing the goal line.

Draisaitl eventually made it 1-0 on the same power play 54 seconds into the second period on another shot from the right dot, this one a one-timer on a pass out front from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

The forward has 12 points (six goals, six assists) on an eight-game point streak.

Bertuzzi tied it 1-1 on the power play at 8:32, when a Connor Bedard shot from a sharp angle went in off his skate at the far post.

“I think when you’re down on the road against the defending Stanley Cup finalists, to come back and get a point is good,” said Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill. “You feel good about that, but once you get to overtime, you want both.

“Obviously, we didn’t have the puck a bunch half the time, so that’s a tough one. But I thought there was some stuff we did good out there, there were certainly things we could be better at. We battled back and got a point.”

Jack Roslovic put Edmonton ahead 2-1 at 17:17, when McDavid found him for a backdoor tap-in past Knight’s left pad. The forward has five points (two goals, three assists) in 11 games since signing with the Oilers on Oct. 8.

“He was great, he’s been great since he’s been here,” McDavid said of Roslovic. “It’s pretty impressive, he doesn’t have a [training] camp, jumps right in and has looked really dangerous every game. He’s been great.”

Burakovsky tied it 2-2 at 3:19 of the third period, cleaning up the rebound in tight after Ryan Greene dug the puck from the boards behind the net and passed it out front to Artyom Levshunov for the initial shot.

“The puck gets rimmed low, I’m just trying to play strong, win a battle and luckily it popped out to me there and I got control of it,” Greene said. “I saw ‘Arty’ coming down, so I just tried putting it in a good spot for him to get a shot off. It’s tough, we’ve been in this position a lot and we’re just trying to figure out how to win games like this

“I think it’s a good thing that we’ve been tight with some of the top teams in the League, but we’ve obviously got to find a way to get it done.”

NOTES: Oilers forward Vasily Podkolzin hit the outside of the post on a penalty shot at 10:57 of the first period. … McDavid had his 138th career three-point game and passed Jari Kurri (137) for second most in Oilers history behind Wayne Gretzky (301). The Edmonton captain had his 56th three-assist game and tied Dale Hawerchuk for 14th most in NHL history. The only active player with more is Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins (67). … Bedard has eight points (four goals, four assists) on a four-game point streak. ... Draisaitl pushed his point streak against Chicago to 19 games, dating back to Oct. 28, 2018. It is the longest active streak by an NHL player against a single team, with 37 points (15 goals, 22 assists) in that span.