Blackhawks Defeat Edmonton: 4-3

In quite dramatic fashion, the Chicago Blackhawks scratched out a challenging win against the Edmonton Oilers to take a lead in the 5-game series, 2-1. With the win, the Oilers now face elimination with Game 4 on Friday, the time is still to be determined. 

Both teams came out looking sharp with the Blackhawks scoring first (Maatta) in the game at 9:14 in the first period, followed closely by a Leon Draisaitl goal to tie the game. The Blackhawks finished out the period Jonathan Toews’ third playoff goal, taking the lead, 2-1 to end the period. In the second period, the Hawks were shut out, while Draisaitl and Connor McDavid led the way to give Edmonton the lead 3-2 by the end of the period.

Frustration filled the night for the Blackhawks as they had endlessly good chances due to sloppy play later in the game by the Edmonton Oilers. The Hawks put a lot of shots on net, but nothing would go in. A total of FIVE posts were hit by Blackhawks’ shots. Another frustrating aspect was while the Hawks had 6 separate power plays, only one were they able to score. Conversely, Edmonton continued their power play prowess with a goal on only 3 power plays.

Crawford and Kiskonen both played very well again giving each of their teams legitimate chances to win.

But with time waning in the final frame and the Hawks trailing 3-2, it looked like Coach Jeremy Colliton’s team would be staring elimination in the face, then, fortune changed. Matthew Highmore and the 4th line of the Blackhawks knocked in a goal with less than 6 minutes remaining in the period to tie it at 3-3. If that wasn’t good enough news for the Hawks who had been trailing for most of the period, with 1:16 remaining in the game, Captain Serious, Jonathan Toews redirected a shot into the back of the Edmonton net to give the Blackhawks the 4-3 lead, a lead which they wouldn’t relinquish. 

I stated in Game 2’s article that the series would get very interesting as soon as we saw both teams put out stellar efforts. Tonight was that night. It was a very even performance from both teams and goalies, but there has to be a winner, and fortunately for Frustration Nation and all of Chicago, the Blackhawks were the winners and now have a chance to advance to the next round of the playoffs with a win on Friday.

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