Lardis Scores in Third, But Former Hawks Dickinson and Murphy Seal It as Oilers Beat Blackhawks 3-1

Game Summary

The Blackhawks opened their final road trip of the season with a familiar result. The Edmonton Oilers controlled the game from start to finish and won 3-1 at Rogers Place on Thursday night, outshooting Chicago 38-18 and extending the Blackhawks' losing streak to five games. The Oilers won their fifth straight — a season high — and swept the three-game season series for the second time in three years. The Blackhawks fall to 27-35-14.

The first period was scoreless despite Edmonton tilting the ice. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins hit the crossbar, and the Oilers generated the better chances throughout, but Spencer Knight kept it level. Edmonton broke through at 5:32 of the second when Adam Henrique scored on a backhand, assisted by Jack Roslovic and Darnell Nurse. Matt Savoie made it 2-0 at 12:13 on the power play, finishing a feed from Connor McDavid with Evan Bouchard picking up the secondary assist. Chicago had no answer the rest of the period.

Nick Lardis got the Blackhawks on the board at 5:06 of the third, scoring his 9th goal of the season on a snap shot assisted by Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen. It was 2-1 and Chicago had some life — but they couldn't sustain the push. The Oilers locked things down and Vasily Podkolzin sealed it with an empty-net goal at 18:59, assisted by Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy. Two former Blackhawks putting the finishing touch on it.

The New-Look Roster

The story of the night was on the other side. Dickinson and Murphy, traded from Chicago to Edmonton at the deadline, played against their former team for the first time. Before the game, Dickinson said he'd shared intel on the Blackhawks' penalty kill with Edmonton's power play unit. Murphy took a lighter approach, joking that the Oilers hadn't asked him for tips on stopping Bedard because they'd seen him get beaten by Bedard too many times in practice. Both played effective games, and both ended up on the scoresheet.

Knight was the reason this game stayed close as long as it did. Edmonton outshot Chicago by 20 and generated quality looks all night, and Knight turned away the majority of them to earn the third star despite the loss. The 38-18 shot disparity tells the story of possession — Chicago couldn't get much going offensively, managing just 18 shots in 60 minutes. That's the fewest in a game for the Blackhawks since they were held to 16 against Colorado on February 28.

Anton Frondell was held off the scoresheet for the second straight game after posting points in each of his first four NHL contests. He had multiple shot attempts blocked and took a few hits from the physical Oilers defense. Growing pains on the road against a playoff team — nothing unusual for an 18-year-old in his seventh NHL game. Bedard picked up his 39th assist on the Lardis goal and won 10 of 16 faceoffs on the night.

Looking Ahead

The road trip continues Saturday at the Seattle Kraken (9:00 p.m. CT) and Monday at the San Jose Sharks (9:00 p.m. CT). At 27-35-14 and 68 points with 6 games remaining, the Blackhawks need to win three of six to reach 30 wins — that benchmark they've been chasing all season. The Oilers move to 39-28-9 and 87 points, pulling into a tie with Anaheim for first in the Pacific Division. Edmonton owns the tiebreaker with 30 regulation wins to Anaheim's 24. Chicago's four injured players — Grzelcyk, Levshunov, Mangiapane, and Moore — all remain out. The Blackhawks have now lost five straight and have just two wins in their last 11 games.