 kept it simple. It sounds all very cliched, but that's all stuff we didn't do in game one and did tonight,'' McDavid said.Oiler forward Tyler Ennis said McDavid was the difference maker.''Connor led the way, especially early (and) set tone for us, gave us a spark. That's exactly what we needed and everybody followed,'' said Ennis.Given that the rink was fan-free, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, arena staff hustled down the stairs and honored hockey tradition by tossing ball caps over the glass and onto the ice to mark the hat trick.''I found the hats a little unnecessary,'' McDavid said. ''I'd rather just drop the puck and keep on going.'' Game 3 is Wednesday night.The fans, if there had been any, would barely have settled into their seats when McDavid, standing in the slot, opened the scoring when he took a bouncing loft pass from Darnell Nurse and redirected it into the net over the shoulder of Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford.At the 4:05 mark, McDavid knocked down a stretch pass in full stride at center ice and, with his speed, blew past Chicago defenseman Olli Maatta on the backhand and flipped the puck up and over the short-side left shoulder of Crawford.Chicago battled back, but never took the lead.Midway through the first frame, Alex DeBrincat, circling the net, fed a backhand pass to Patrick Kane, who jumped into the play and redirected the puck low stick side on the far side past Edmonton goalie Mikko Koskinen.''I thought we did a good job tonight. We were in the hole 2-0 early and came back to tie it,'' Kane said.''I think the confidence in the room was still there that we were going to come back .... (but) once they got the fifth and sixth (goals) it kinda put the game out of reach.'' Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said the Oilers stepped their game up and Chicago didn't respond.''I don't think we made things as hard on them as we did in the first game,'' Toews said.''Early in the game, we were giving (McDavid) some Grade-A chances and he's not making any mistakes.'' Edmonton restored the two-goal advantage less than two minutes into the second period. Tyler Ennis, high up in the slot near the blue line, delivered a wrist shot that found its way through traffic and through the legs of a screened Crawford.At the 4:22 mark, defenseman Slater Koekkoek jumped into the high slot, took a pass from DeBrincat and wristed the puck under the blocker side arm of Koskinen.With less than five minutes to go in the second, Maatta wristed the puck from the blue line. The puck knuckled its way through bodies in the slot, bounced off the shin pad of Oiler defenseman Kris Russell and trickled past Koskinen.Edmonton regained the lead with McDavid's hat trick. On the power play with under three minutes to go in the second, McDavid fired the puck along the ice from a sharp angle that deflected off the skate of Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith, between Crawford's legs and in.Edmonton put the game away midway through the third period when Crawford came out to play the puck behind his net, but bobbled it. James Neal swooped in, stole it and backhanded it into the empty net for a 5-3 lead.Forty seconds later, Alex Chiasson scored from a sharp angle on a goalmouth scramble to make it 6-3.Chicago's top line of Jonathan Toews, Brandon Saad, and Dominik Kubalik, which torched the Oilers for 10 points in Saturday' win, were held in check.Kubalik, the 24-year-old Czech rookie, scored two goals and added three assists in the first game but was held scoreless this time around.Edmonton outshot Chicago 35-26, after being outshot 42-29 in the opener.McDavid, the NHL's second-leading scorer in the regular season (34 goals, 97 points), had a goal and two assists in the opening game but he, along with the rest of his team, had been roundly criticized for getting outhustled and outmuscled by the lower-ranked Hawks in a 6-4 loss in Saturday's opener.NOTES: The main lineup change for Edmonton was power forward Zack Kassian. Kassian, ineffective to the point of being invisible on McDavid's top line in game one, was punted down to the fourth line, with fourth liner Josh Archibald taking his place alongside McDavid.UP NEXTGame 3 is Wednesday night.---For more NHL coverage: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
After being routed in Game 1, the Edmonton Oilers have to quickly get on track when they host the Chicago Blackhawks in the second game of their best-of-five Western Conference qualifying round series on Monday night.The 6-4 result in Saturday's Game 1 was perhaps a little flattering to the Oilers, who scored twice in the final four minutes to make the score respectable. In between those last four minutes and Connor McDavid's opening score at 2:34 of the first period, however, Chicago dominated most of the play.The Blackhawks responded to McDavid's goal by building a 4-1 lead by the end of the opening period, and then led 6-2 after the first two frames. Chicago outshot Edmonton by a 42-29 margin in the game and outscored the Oilers 3-0 in even-strength play (the Oilers' lone non-power-play goal came with the goaltender pulled, giving Edmonton a 6-on-5 advantage in skaters)."I think a lot of it was just the work ethic by our forwards to get above the puck, so that we were in a good position to keep the momentum going, whether it's pressure or to jump on the loose pucks," Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton told reporters. "We were able to extend some shifts in the offensive zone.... We know they're a great transition team so we want to hold them down in their defensive zone as much as we can." Dominik Kubalik paced the offense with two goals and three assists, becoming the first player in NHL history to register five points in his first career postseason game. Kubalik also tied a Chicago team record for most points in a single playoff game, becoming the sixth Blackhawks player to hit the five-point plateau.Both of Kubalik's goals came on the power play, as Chicago was 3-for-6 with the extra attacker. It was an unexpected breakout performance given that the Blackhawks had the fourth-lowest power play percentage in the league during the regular season, and the Oilers boasted the second-best penalty killing numbers of any club."Once they got in (to our end), they beat us probably every which way you can on the penalty kill," Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse said. "We'll watch some film, get back at it, nothing we can do about it now. I think there's a lot to learn from that game. We need to show up for Game 2 in a completely different mindset." Oilers goaltender Mike Smith allowed five goals on 23 shots before being pulled from the game. While Edmonton's defensive breakdowns were more at fault than Smith for Chicago's scoring, it seems probable that the Oilers will go with Mikko Koskinen between the pipes in Game 2.Koskinen stopped 18 of 19 shots in relief of Smith on Saturday, allowing only a power-play goal from Kubalik. Game 1 marked the first playoff appearance of Koskinen's NHL career, while the veteran Smith was making his 23rd postseason start.Corey Crawford saved 25 of 29 shots in Game 1 and is expected to again serve as the Blackhawks' starting goalie on Tuesday.McDavid was involved in three of Edmonton's scores in Game 1, as the star forward collected a goal and two assists.Chicago entered the postseason as the 12th and final Western Conference playoff team after a 32-30-8 regular-season record, finishing nine points behind fifth-seeded Edmonton.The Oilers have something of a unique home-ice advantage since all Western Conference playoff games (and the Stanley Cup Final) are being played in Edmonton, though the Oilers are staying within the same "bubble" environment as other teams throughout the postseason.--Field Level Media
Looking for More Picks?
You can browse all the individual handicapper picks below.
Chicago Blackhawks
Edmonton Oilers
Pick Center
NHL
FINAL (8/3/2020)
ShaggyRA
