The western canadian portion of the hawks' 6 game circus trip rolled into Edmonton & over the Oilers, as the hawks scored 3 times in the first 12+ minutes and essentially coasted the rest of the way to a 5-2 win.
Jonathan Toews, the game's first star, opened & closed the scoring on the night, doubling his goal total for the season, and demonstrating his value to the team again in the more traditional way - on the scoresheet. The first goal was the direct result of his typical dogged forecheck & relentless pursuit of the puck. Andrew Ladd did much of the intial work, gaining control of the puck in the left corner, then leaving the puck for Toews while heading off the ice. Toews attempted to cycle the puck back to Kane, however, the pass didn't connect & instead went behind the net to the right side. Toews followed the puck across to the far corner where he pressured Edmonton Dman Smid into coughing it up. Patrick Kane following on the play, gathered in the loose puck & set it up for Toews, who headed for the front of the net, first trying to stuff it in low on DesLauriers, then picking up his own rebound unchecked in front and firing it into the top right hand corner all in seemingly one motion to put the hawks up by 1 less than 4 minutes in. DesLauriers was a surprise starter after Khabiboulin's back stiffened up on him again earlier in the day, leaving insufficient time for a backup from their farm team to make the game.
Edmonton responded on the next shift, being helped first by Sopel, who without being pressured, cleared the puck on a hard around that went all the way down the ice for an icing. The hawks uncharacteristically lost the ensuing face-off (they won 52% on the night) and while Huet made the initial save on Souray's uncharacteristically weak point shot, he left a rebound sitting in front. Cam Barker (aka Alexander Karpovtsev, another #25 who couldn't play defense for the hawks) instead of taking the man (i.e. playing the body on Dustin Penner, the lone Oiler who posed any threat to get to the loose puck) which would have allowed Huet to cover up the puck, opted rather to try to "help" his goalie by steering the puck back to him...a move that Huet obviously didn't expect & it proceeded to slide into the hawks net to tie the game less than 30 seconds after Toews' goal.
To their credit, the hawks quickly shook off that bad play and responded themselves a few minutes later with some good offensive zone pressure. Bean Eager this time winning the puck in a battle in the right corner & feeding it back towards the right point, where a pinching Brent Sopel made amends for the earlier costly icing, by finding a wide open Versteeg to the right of DesLauriers with a cross ice pass. Versteeg was stopped by DesLaurier on his intial shot but chipped the rebound off DesLauriers sending it high above the net. Souray, who was credited with Barker's goal, tried to swipe the airborn puck away from danger, but was being pressured by Kopecky, and inadvertently knocked it into his own net.
A few minutes later, Patrick Kane made it 3-1 on a nifty play. Recognizing that Souray had (poorly) decided to pinch at the hawk line, leaving Oiler forward Reddox back to cover for him, Kane headed straight for open ice down the right side and gloved down Toews' flip pass/clear out of the defensive zone, taking it without breaking stride. He then cut around Reddox and in on DesLauriers, beating him low five hole. Having given up 3 goals on only 6 shots, there was some talk at that point that the Oilers might wish to pull DesLauriers, however, their backup was Torrie Jung, a junior goalie with the Edmonton Oil Kings who was signed to an amateur try out contract to replace the injured Khabiboulin.
The hawks put it into cruise after that and in the 2nd period, Brouwer combined with Ladd & Madden to give the hawks their 4th goal, firing a shot up high on DesLaurier's shoulder, forcing the goalie to make a tough save & more importantly give up a rebound, with Ladd there to pick up the loose puck in the crease & he quickly passed it over to an uncovered Madden at the right side of the crease, who tapped it in an open net.
The Oilers looked like they might have drawn back to within 2 at the end of the 2nd period, when on the power play Horcoff tapped in a puck fired from the right corner that lay loose between Huet's legs, but replays showed that the clock had been stopped prematurely and that the puck had actually crossed the line after time had expired in the period.
The Oilers however did eventually score on that penalty with Dustin Penner beating Sopel for position & deflecting a point shot past Huet to start the 3rd period, making it a game again. However, with former hawk & current Oiler captain Ethan Moreau in the box for goaltender interference, Toews worked the give & go with Patrick Sharp to perfection - passing to Sharp on the left half boards from the left corner, then heading to the slot, where Sharp found him wide open with a return pass - Toews wired it into the top left corner again to close out the scoring.
Huet had a reasonably quiet night - the oilers had 16 shots combined over the first two periods and added 11 more in the 3rd, however, failed to generate many good scoring chances on the hawk goalie who has now won 8 of his last 10 starts since the debacles against Dallas.
The Oilers came out in the first taking the body, in an attempt to slow the speedy hawks down, likely a good preview of what to expect versus Vancouver. It was apparent that Hjalmarsson was one of their targets as he took several big hits in the first minute and again later in the 2nd by Brule on an icing call that drew a penalty. Bryan Bickell attempted to respond in kind early in the first, lining up Penner for a big hit, tho he got the worst of it, apparently hitting his head on the ice on the follow through of the check. Bickell, who has shown some positive elements in his brief stint so far did not return to the game. If he is unable to play tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if Hossa makes his initial appearance for the hawks earlier than expected vs. Vancouver rather than the apparently planned San Jose return or whether the hawks insert Hendry back into the lineup for a game.
The hawks road record is back above .500 for the first time since their opening trip to Europe, and with the win moved into 2nd overall in the conference, 6 points behind San Jose, which also won tonight & will be the hawks opponent on Wednesday. Nevetheless, it is still early in the season & the current road trip, and they will have a couple of more tough tests in Vancouver & in San Jose that should provide a good measure of where the team currently stacks up. Daniel Sedin is scheduled to return to the Canucks lineup after missing several weeks.
Toews, interviewed after his 3 point performance tonight, admitted that his first game facing Vancouver after the Mitchell hit would have a little more riding on it, while Seabrook, also interviewed after the game, when asked how the hawks cap situation (where some players may have to be moved due to Toews, Kane & Keith agreeing to new long term extensions) was affecting the dressing room, suggested that the players are focusing on keeping the winning going & not on the contract/cap situation.
Ironically, the more successful they are on the ice, the harder it will be to keep the team together.
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