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 It was a fair question after the last place Oilers dumped the
Stanley Cup contenders 5-2 at Rexall Place.
The win gives suddenly surging Oilers points in five of six games
since head coach Todd Nelson took over behind the bench.
"It's great to see that things are starting to kind of gel," said
left winger Taylor Hall, adding the black cloud in the dressing room
seems to be lifting.
"It's fun to win. It does make you forget about what place you are
in the standings for a couple of days. We need that, we need to be a
relaxed group.
"For us, winning helps out a lot with that. Team with skill are a
lot better when they have confidence; they're able to make plays and
you're seeing that with us."
After posting just nine wins in the first half of the season, the
Oilers are determined to make the most of the second half.
"It's not about seeing what kind of record we can pull off in half a
season and then doubling that," said Derek Roy, who had a goal and
two assists in the win. "It's about going out and getting wins and
trying to get better. Calm down a little bit, settle every one down
and work together as a team, see what we can do."
They're doing pretty well so far. After watching too many leads slip
through their fingers this season, they refused to break in the
third period Friday, scoring twice to turn a 3-2 nail-biter into a
three-goal cushion.
The Blackhawks, who were on tired legs after playing Thursday night
in Minnesota and fell to 27-13-2, believe they could have put up a
much better fight.
"They worked hard and they have a lot of skill, and that's what
happens when you don't play your best against them," said left
winger Brandon Saad, who had both Chicago goals.
"It's tough (playing back-to-backs) but there are no excuses. It's
part of the NHL and the schedule. We can't blame it on that. We got
outworked tonight. It was a big game for us and a tough loss.
"We're not happy with our last two performances."
Chicago opened the scoring when Saad converted a two-on-one at 7:34
of the first period, but the Oilers tied it up just over a minute
later when Pouliot scored from close range and went ahead on a power
play goal from newly acquired center Derek Roy at 13:35 to take a
2-1 lead into the first intermission.
[to top of second column] |
Saad tied it for Chicago on a carbon copy of their first two-on-one,
but once again the Oilers restored their lead when defenseman Jeff
Petry scored his fourth of the season just 46 seconds later, making
it 3-2 Oilers at the second intermission.
Right winger Nail Yakupov's first goal in 15 games made it 4-2
Oilers at 16:51 and Hall made it 5-2 with an empty-netter at 17:34.
"That's how we have to play every game," said Yakupov. "That was
really a team game tonight. It was really exciting."
Blackhawks goalie Antti Raanta, who gave up four goals on 21 shots,
took the defeat hard, blaming himself for the end result.
"I've played better games," he said "The game winning-goal, the
third one, if you let that kind of bad rebound right to a guy's
stick, you have to recover and make the save. You can't let in that
kind of goal. We lost the game almost because of me, so it is a bad
feeling."
NOTES: The Blackhawks went 5-1 in the second half of back-to-back
games in the first half of the season, but they lost Friday in the
second game of back-to-back games. ... The Oilers were the only team
in the NHL with a single-digit win total at the 41-game mark of the
schedule. ... Blackhawks C Brad Richards has 50 three-point nights
in his NHL career. ... Chicago's last loss in Edmonton came in
February of 2012. ... Oilers RW Jordan Eberle saw his season-high
four-game point streak come to an end. ... D Duncan Keith, RW
Patrick Kane and C Brad Richards were all -3 for the Hawks. ... The
Blackhawks returned C Teuvo Teravainen, their first-round (18th
overall) draft pick in 2012, to the lineup after making him a
healthy scratch in the third game of his recall from the AHL. ...
The Oilers first overall draft pick in 2012, Nail Yakupov, had one
goal in the last 25 games of the first half. ... Oilers LW Luke
Gazdic has been a healthy scratch in eight of the last 10 games.
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