GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Blackhawks 3

CHICAGO, IL – It was by no means a breeze in the Windy City, but it's two hard-working points for the Blue & Orange.

"First of all, you never want to lose two in a row and get on this downward trend or frustrated," Leon Draisaitl said post-game. "They're not all going to be perfect; they're not all going to be Boston-type games where you win four-nothing, so we had to find a way tonight and we did, and that's all that matters."

After falling behind by multiple goals in the opening period for the second straight game on Saturday night, the Edmonton Oilers fought back over the final 40 minutes to earn themselves a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center, concluding their four-game road trip with three wins.

Teuvo Teravainen and Nick Foligno staked the Blackhawks to a 2-0 advantage after 20 minutes before the Oilers evened things up at three in the second period with tallies from Vasily Podkolzin, Adam Henrique and Corey Perry, setting up the opportunity for Zach Hyman to score the winner on their only power play of the contest 7:18 into the final period.

Forward Leon Draisaitl recorded two assists to increase his point streak against the Blackhawks to 17 games (13G, 19A), giving the German five goals and 10 assists in his last eight contests, and Corey Perry now has three points (1G, 2A) over his previous four appearances after scoring one of Edmonton's three second-period goals.

Forward Adam Henrique scored Edmonton's second for his third goal in three contests, while a goal and an assist for Vasily Podkolzin marked the Russian winger's first multi-point game since Dec. 12. Goaltender Calvin Pickard made 19 saves on 22 shots to reach double-digit victories.

"Anytime you win more than you lose, you're going to be happy," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said of the road trip. "But every NHL team goes through difficult stretches with travel and back-to-backs... We've got some coming up, but with the time zones and stuff like that, every team goes through it and I thought we did as well as we could have."

The Oilers will return home to host the Los Angeles Kings in a Pacific Division battle at Rogers Place on Monday night before embarking on a three-game road trip through Minnesota, Colorado and Vancouver next week.

FIRST PERIOD

Just like in the Steel City, things didn't go according to plan for the Oilers during the opening frame in the Windy City, trailing 2-0 entering the first intermission off goals from Teuvo Teravainen and captain Nick Foligno.

It could've been a different story for the Blue & Orange if Ty Emberson hadn't put his clean shot on an odd-man rush early in the contest off the far post, with the 24-year-old blueliner still searching for his first goal in an Oilers uniform in his 40th game with the club since arriving in Edmonton this past offseason as part of the trade with San Jose involving Cody Ceci.

Under two minutes later, a giveaway by Brett Kulak in the defensive zone turned over possession to the Blackhawks, who worked it down low through Foligno and into the slot for Teravainen to one-time a shot along the ice that banked in off the post against goaltender Calvin Pickard for the 1-0 lead.

After setting up the opening goal, Foligno got on the end of a hard and lucky bounce off the backboards from a shot taken by Teravainen that hit the hand of defenceman Darnell Nurse, altering its path and resulting in Chicago's captain putting it away at the near post to double the Blackhawk's advantage before the break.

Edmonton's three-game win streak at the United Center was in jeopardy of being broken through 20 minutes, and the Oilers had won six games this season when facing a deficit after 20 minutes of play – still the fourth-best in the NHL behind only Colorado (9), Seattle (8) and Vegas (7).

Three of those comebacks came when the deficit was two goals or more, which trailed only Minnesota (4), Seattle (4) and Carolina (4).

"You give up two goals that we can probably prevent and do a better job on, and then you give up another one and obviously frustration can kick in," Draisaitl said. "But I thought we did a good job of handling that tonight is this Pickard hangs in there and hangs in there and at the end of the game he makes a couple of really.

SECOND PERIOD

Edmonton's strong pushback for the second straight contest began only 22 seconds into the middle frame with Vasily Podkolzin's sixth goal of the season that cut into Chicago's lead at 2-1.

A quick regroup by the Oilers off a missed pass by the Blackhawks in the neutral zone sent their second line of Arvidsson, Draisaitl and Podkolzin back the other way on a rush that was finished off in front by the Russian after his Swedish linemate rounded the Chicago net and threw it out front.

An assist for Draisaitl moved his point streak against the Blackhawks to a whopping 17 games, which is the longest current active streak in the NHL for any player against any franchise. The German has now produced at least a point in eight straight outings.

"I think we just cleaned up our puck play a little bit," Draisaitl said. "I think both nights, it was more mental than anything. I thought we were skating pretty well both nights, but I think our puck play got better. We're passing the puck better, and when you value the puck like that, we've got a lot of great players on our team.

"What separates us from a lot of teams is when we have clean puck movement, it makes us really, really fast and really tough to handle."

The Blackhawks restored their two-goal lead on a hard turn-around shot in the slot from forward Ryan Donato just after the period's halfway mark that was set up by former Oilers' 2010 first-overall pick Taylor Hall.

Donato registered goals in back-to-back games after scoring in the first half of Chicago's back-to-back on Friday night that ended in a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings – the same score as Edmonton's defeat to Pittsburgh two days ago.

Connor McDavid hit the side of the post a few minutes later before Zach Hyman was set up in front for two dangerous chances that the winger – who was reunited on the top line with McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – couldn't put away, but the Oilers were pressing hard to get another goal back and their hard work would result in them tying the game before the second intermission.

After Emberson hit the post early in the opening frame, the Eau Claire, WI product had one of his waist-high attempts on goal deflected home in front by Adam Henrique to draw the Oilers back within one with 4:11 left in the period on the 34-year-old winger's sixth goal of the season.

"We just turned things up and got to our game," Henrique said. "I think the timing of the goal on the first one [was good] to get us going, and then they get one back again. But I thought we did a good job responding."

Henrique's tally was his third goal in his last three games, and Emberson's helper was his sixth of the campaign, giving him three assists over his last eight contests.

With two-and-a-half minutes left in the period, a knock-down by Kasperi Kapanen along the wall allowed the Oilers to complete the comeback before the intermission, getting the puck to former Blackhawk Corey Perry in the left circle to beat Soderblom inside the far post with a shot that tied the game at three.

The veteran 39-year-old now has three points (1G, 2A) over his last four games.

"I think it was really important," Knoblauch said of Perry's goal. "We were pushing there at the end of the period. We were still down two with about seven minutes left, and we needed at least one of them and were able to get two and come in after the second period with a tie game.

"We felt confident that we could outscore them in the third period."

THIRD PERIOD

One clutch power play and one critical penalty kill were what the Oilers needed to snatch victory in Chicago.

Defenceman Nolan Allen's tripping penalty 6:18 into the period on Connor Brown ended up costing Chicago dearly, sending one of the NHL's most potent power plays to the man advantage with the opportunity to take the lead for the first time on Saturday despite trailing by two at the end of the opening frame.

Draisaitl made the quick decision to fire a shot on goal from the top of the right circle that Zach Hyman found first before he turned around and fired the rebound past Soderblom to lift the Oilers into a 4-3 advantage with under 13 minutes remaining in regulation.

Hyman's go-ahead goal extended his point streak to three games (1G, 2A), while he now has 14 goals and 10 assists over his last 27 contests.

"They've been really scoring timely goals in the last month or so," Knoblauch said of the power play. "Early on this season, our power play wasn't running as it usually does or as we're accustomed to. But after the last couple of months, we've moved up in the standings on a regular basis while getting a lot of scoring chances and playing on instincts.

"There's no set play – it's usually those guys just taking what's available and making those plays. And tonight, it was a goal that we haven't seen for a while just from throwing it towards the net area, and Hyman found a way to put it in. He'd had some real prime opportunities even before he finished that one."

Action simmered down until things picked back up in the final minute, where forward Mattias Janmark looked to have had his stick taken out of his hands by Connor Bedard outside Edmonton's blueline with an empty Chicago net in his sights, but no call was made by the officials.

Moments later, Adam Henrique was guilty of a high-stick against Tyler Bertuzzi, setting up a dramatic finish with the Blackhawks getting a six-on-four opportunity to tie the game at the death where the Oilers showed their resolve protecting the lead as one of the League's most veteran teams.

"You can't take a penalty at the end there," Henrique admitted. "But the guys did a good job battling at the end blocking shocks, and Picks made some great saves there. So I had no doubt."

Chicago wasn't able to find the equalizer thanks to some steady goaltending from Calvin Pickard, who just like Skinner on Thursday night in Pittsburgh, was solid over the final 40 minutes after giving up a few goals in the opening frame.

"He made some big saves, especially on the penalty kill at the end," Knoblauch said. "The first goal is a bit of a fluke. They shoot it and hits off Doc's hand and it goes behind the net and rebounds right to their stick, but he was solid for us.

"He was really great," Draisaitl added. "The last 40 minutes and even all game, [Teravainen's] one-timer from the slot, that can go in on anybody, so I thought he was great all night."

An offensive-zone face-off represented the Blackhawks' last opportunity to get a last-gasp goal, but after they won the draw, the puck hopped over the stick of their defenceman to send it into the neutral zone and allow the Oilers to escape with their 4-3 victory at the United Center.

Hyman's winner would go down as his fifth GWG of the season, and his 19th as an Oiler (33rd of his career).