GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Blackhawks 1

EDMONTON, AB – Five in a row and thriving in the race for the Pacific Division title.

Adam Henrique and Matt Savoie each tallied goals, while Tristan Jarry made 17 saves in a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at Rogers Place on Thursday night that gives the Edmonton Oilers five straight wins and a share of first place in the Pacific Division.

"It's huge," Savoie said. "We're pushing. We're focusing on one game at a time right now, and when we get to the playoffs, it's about focusing on that. So we're really excited and focusing on one game at a time."

The Oilers took the lead on Henrique's third goal of the season 5:32 into the second period before Savoie banked home his 15th tally nearly seven minutes later on the power play, scoring his fourth goal in five games to end a six-game goalless drought for their man advantage dating back to Mar. 17.

Nick Lardis scored for Chicago to cut the lead to one in the third period, but Vasily Podkolzin's 17th goal of the campaign on an empty net with 1:01 remaining sealed his team's fifth straight win, which puts them into a tie with Anaheim on 87 points as they continue to push for a division title.

"You want to give yourself the best opportunity, and a lot of times that's finishing first," Henrique said. "We know from the past that it doesn't matter, but you want to try to get there and try to take advantage of that when you can.  That's obviously a goal for everybody."

The Oilers will entertain the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday to close out their four-game homestand with the chance to make it six in a row and earn two more crucial points in the Pacific playoff race.

FIRST PERIOD

If not for a pair of shots from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ty Emberson striking iron early in regulation, the Oilers would've likely been looking at a lead through 20 minutes, but the Blackhawks were able to hold on until the intermission and even challenge late on the power play to provide the Oilers a scare.

The Oilers outshot the Blackhawks by a 12-5 margin in the first period, with former Chicago centre Jason Dickinson nearly combining with Kasperi Kapanen on the first shift with a cross-crease pass that the Finnish forward couldn't elevate over the right skate of goalie Spencer Knight.

"I thought we had a really good start tonight," Savoie said. "Obviously, we didn't give them many looks in the first two periods and did a really good job limiting their shots and chances."

Nugent-Hopkins hit the crossbar with a wicked snapshot off the rush before it was Ty Emberson who caught the post cleanly on an open look from the right circle just minutes later, as the Blackhawks were lucky not to be trailing early thanks to the iron.

The Oilers kept up the pressure on their first power play soon after with five shots, but ultimately couldn't break the deadlock as they searched for their first power-play goal since before they started their four-game win streak.

But Chicago still had their chances by forcing Tristan Jarry into making some tricky saves, with Ilya Mikheyev getting loose on a breakaway that luckily was flashed over the crossbar by the Russian forward.

The Blackhawks hit a post of their own when McDavid was penalized late for hooking, seeing NHL newcomer Anton Frondell wire a one-timer off the crossbar from the top of the circle before Jarry cleared the loose puck from the crease.

The Oilers would escape the period and kill off the remaining 1:23 of McDavid's penalty on the other side of the intermission for their only penalty kill of the night, improving to 11-for-12 over their five-game win streak with the help of their two new additions from the Blackhawks near the Trade Deadline.

"It's looking very good," Knoblauch said of the penalty kill. "Having two really good penalty killers in Dickinson and Murphy, they've been a really big part of that, and then just everybody blocking shots. Your most important penalty killer is your goaltender, and you saw the Grade-A chance that we gave up at the end of the first period. He came up with a huge one there."

SECOND PERIOD

For the third game in a row, Edmonton's fourth line came through with the opening goal, and it came from another source in Adam Henrique to end a long goalless drought.

The breakthrough for the Oilers finally came 5:32 into the middle frame when Adam Henrique scored with his second try on a breakaway, before the power play broke its goalless drought later in the period on a lucky bounce for Matt Savoie to double the lead to 2-0 on the Blackhawks after 40 minutes.

Jarry's save on a deflected shot from Frank Nazar early in the period was his best of the seven saves he made in the middle stanza before Kapanen had a breakaway attempt on the next rush up ice that trickled just wide when Knight got a piece of his snap shot.

Knight would need equipment repairs, which led to Arvid Soderblom taking over the Chicago net for a brief spell, during which he'd give up the opening marker to Henrique after Jack Roslovic pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone to create a breakaway.

Roslovic quickly found Henrique in space, going in alone and having his first chance stopped before burying the rebound for his third goal and fifteenth point of the season, finding the back of the net for the first time since Oct. 27 against Montreal (50 games).

"It's not something that I've been putting extra pressure on myself to do, but it's certainly nice to go and get one and finally get back on the board," Henrique said.

When Knight did get back into the Chicago crease, the Oilers would go to the power play and break their six-game run without a goal when Matt Savoie banked in his 15th goal of the season after trying to find the stick of Hyman in front.

The rookie forward is engulfed in the most productive scoring stretch of his young career while playing alongside Connor McDavid and Vasily Podkolzin, scoring in four of his last five games and sitting ninth in NHL rookie scoring with 32 points.

"I'd like to score every game," he said. "I'm getting lots of looks right now, so just trying to stay hot."

McDavid would pick up his 83rd assist of the season, along with Evan Bouchard collecting his 67th helper to tie Paul Coffey’s in 1982-83 campaign for the fourth most assists in a single season by a defenceman in Oilers history.

Bouchard is now only three points away from becoming the second defenceman in Oilers history to collect 90 points in a season.

The Oilers did score three times in the period, but Savoie's would-be second goal of the game on a back-door pass from McDavid was nullified by a Chicago coach's challenge for offside after the captain didn't have full control of the puck coming over the blueline.

THIRD PERIOD

The Blackhawks did get themselves within one, but that's five wins in a row now for the Oilers, sealing the deal with the help of a pair of former Chicago players on the empty-netter to help the Oilers finish the night with a share of first place in the Pacific Division.

Forward Nick Lardis made it 2-1 with over five minutes gone in the final stanza by banking one in himself off a defender – this time off the skate of his former teammate Connor Murphy as he tried to come in and prevent a point-blank scoring chance.

The same commitment to defending that's been the highlight of this five-game win streak helped the Oilers hold it down in their own zone until Murphy & Dickinson provided the helpers on Vasily Podkolzin's empty-netter with 1:01 left in regulation.

"Our group's just been really attentive these past few weeks," Savoie said. "I think we're really buying in.  Obviously, we know how important this time of year is and the push we have to make the playoffs and give ourselves a really good spot in the standings. So guys know how big a time of year it is, and guys are digging in."