Oilers down Blackhawks 7-4

Oilers forward Ales Hemsky gets around Chicago's Viktor Stalberg during Friday night's game (Photo by Getty Images)

---

PRE-GAME

Preview Game Notes Head-to-Head Stats Comparison Video interviews Audio Interviews

PHOTOS

Click here for the photo gallery Photo of the Day

VIDEO

IN FOCUS: Post-game comments from Gagner, Hall, Eberle & Renney THE OTHER SIDE: Post-game comments from Quenneville, Kane & Keith Eberle's highlight reel goal Cogliano's first of 2010-11 Three in a Hurry: Oilers scored three goals in 1:09 to extend their first period lead. Full Highlights

POST-GAME AUDIO

Tom Renney Taylor Hall Magnus Paajarvi Sam Gagner Jordan Eberle

THREE STARS

Taylor Hall, EDM - 1g, 1a Jordan Eberle, EDM - 1g, 1a Duncan Keith, CHI - 2a

UPDATE

The win gave the Oilers a record of 1-0-2 on their three-game road trip and 3-4-2 overall on the season.

WHAT'S NEXT

Edmonton returns home where they will play the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. MDT. Watch the game on Rogers Sportsnet West or come down to Rexall Place. Single seats are still available. CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

The Edmonton Oilers took a three-goal outburst in a minute and nine seconds in the opening period and carried that to a 7-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center on Friday night. Seven Oilers had two points on the night including a pair of goals from Sam Gagner. Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 37 of 41 shots for the win.

FIRST PERIOD

The Oilers struck early in the game as Taylor Hall took a quick drop pass from Jordan Eberle then fired it past 'Hawks starting netminder Marty Turco to make it a 1-0 score.

Action continued to go back and forth through the opening 10 minutes. Shots on goal six minutes in were 4-4 with both sides having prolonged periods on the attack. Midway through they were 6-5 Edmonton.

The Oilers nearly scored again as Hall made a nice play along the boards before dishing it to Eberle who fed Shawn Horcoff at the right hash marks. His one-timer was stopped by Turco.

The game's first penalty went to Theo Peckham at 9:27. Jack Skille attempted to split the defence and nearly succeeded but was hauled down by Peckham, giving Chicago the game's first power play.

22 seconds later, Jonathan Toews skated in on the wing and wristed a shot five hole past Khabibulin to tie the game at 1-1.

Later in the period, Edmonton scored three goals in a span of a minute and nine seconds to take a 4-1 lead on Chicago.

The Oilers regained its one-goal advantage after Turco kicked out a point shot from Ryan Whitney straight to Ales Hemsky. Hemsky made no mistake, one-timing it past Turco low into the back of the net and it was 2-1 Oilers.

35 seconds later, Eberle took a great feed from Horcoff in the slot and deked out Turco for the goal to give Edmonton a two-goal lead.

34 seconds after that, the Oilers struck again. Duncan Keith's clearing attempt went off the referee's skate and scooped up by Magnus Paajarvi. He quickly fed it to Sam Gagner in the slot who one-timed it in to make it a three-goal game.

That three-goal lead was shortlived, however. Patrick Kane scored with 11 seconds to play in the opening frame during a mad scramble in front of the net. Kane pounced on a loose puck and fired it in past a screened Oilers netminder to make it 4-2 for Edmonton heading into the first intermission.

The final shot count was 15-12 for Chicago after 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD

At the start of the period, Turco was replaced in goal by Corey Crawford.

2:08 into the middle frame, Andrew Cogliano scored to regain Edmonton's three-goal lead. The play started when Cogliano made a great play at the blueline to catch the puck and get moving in the other direction. He dished the puck over to Gilbert Brule then made a beeline for the net. Brule made a great pass to get it back on Cogliano's stick. Cogliano then redirected it past Crawford for the goal.

Several minutes later, a high-sticking penalty to Jake Dowell gave Edmonton its first power play of the night. The Oilers weren't able to generate much on the penalty kill on that play.

Penalties to Brule and Horcoff then put Edmonton behind the eight-ball, giving Chicago a two-man advantage. The Blackhawks called a timeout to try and capitalize but the Oilers penalty killers - and in particular Colin Fraser - stood tall and kept the game at 5-2.

On the next shift, the Oilers were caught running around in their own zone and it cost them. A shot by Viktor Stalberg was stopped by Khabibulin but the rebound went to Strudwick who couldn't find the puck in his skates. Dowell pounced on it and fired it into the net for the goal.

Kurtis Foster made a great play in the second period to spring Ryan Jones in on a partial breakaway. Foster fed the puck across the neutral zone, right on the stick of Jones. Jones' shot went five-hole on Crawford and into the back of the net, making it a 6-3 game for Edmonton.

Shots on goal after two periods were 29 to 20 in favour of Chicago.

THIRD PERIOD

Through the opening six minutes of the third period, there was only one shot on goal. Khabibulin knocked away a long shot from the Blackhawks with his glove.

With 11:07 to play in the final frame, Gilbert Brule took a hooking penalty to give the Blackhawks a power play. Down by three goals, the 'Hawks needed to use this as an opportunity to get back in the game.

25 seconds into the ensuing man advantage, the Blackhawks rang two shots off the post. After that flurry of activity, the Oilers settled down somewhat and managed to kill the penalty off. The best chance after that, in fact, was Eberle's as he nearly broke in alone after forcing a turnover in the neutral zone.

A few minutes later, the Oilers were in the box again, this time for a Too Many Men penalty. Chciago was finally able to get one past Khabibulin as Patrick Sharp teed up a blast from the right circle under the crossbar to make it 6-4.

Sam Gagner added an empty-net goal with 1:22 remaining to ice the game.