4 Takeaways From Oilers’ 4-3 Overtime Win Over Blackhawks – The Hockey Writers Edmonton Oilers Latest News, Analysis & More

Zach Hyman scored in overtime to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 victory over the host Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Wednesday (Feb. 5).

Viktor Arvidsson, Leon Draisaitl and Jeff Skinner also scored for Edmonton, while the Blackhawks got goals from Ryan Donato, Alec Martinez and Lukas Reichel. Between the pipes, Oilers netminder Calvin Pickard stopped 29 shots and Chicago’s Arvid Soderblom made 34 saves.

Edmonton improved its record to 34-16-4 and now has a four-point lead over the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division standings.

Oilers Get Secondary Scoring

The Oilers got a couple of goals from its usual suspects on Tuesday but also received some key support scoring from two players that haven’t performed to expectations so far this season: Arvidsson scored his seventh goal of the season to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead, while Skinner scored for the ninth time in 2024-25 to put the Oilers ahead 2-1 early in the third period.

Arvidsson and Skinner were the Oilers’ two big offseason free-agent additions, and it was hoped that both forwards would light the lamp far more frequently in 2024-25. But 54 games into Edmonton’s schedule, Wednesday was the first time that both scored for the Oilers.

While Arvidsson snapped an eight-game goalless skid with his second-period tally, Skinner has been more encouraging of late: he’s now got three goals in his last five games.

Victory Didn’t Come Easy for Oilers

Considering Edmonton is third while the Blackhawks are second from last in the NHL overall standings, this shouldn’t have been an overly challenging contest for the Oilers. And while it took a while for them to gain a comfortable lead, the Oilers seemed to have things locked up when Draisaitl scored to give Edmonton a 3-1 lead with less than 12 minutes remaining in the third period.

But to their credit, the Blackhawks came to play on Wednesday, and they weren’t about to give up with more than half a period to go. Donato’s power-play goal at 12:12 of the third cut Edmonton’s lead to one, before Martinez scored the equalizer with just 3:44 remaining.

In the Oilers’ last four games, they have gone to overtime twice after blowing a two-goal lead and twice after blowing a third-period lead.

Oilers’ OT Mastery Continues

Fortunately, Edmonton is dominant when playing three-on-three. In fact, the only scenario in which the Oilers might be more dominant is when they’re playing four-on-three.

Related: Draisaitl & Hyman Lead Oilers in 4-3 Overtime Win Over Blackhawks

With that said, Chicago’s fate was pretty much sealed when the Blackhawks were penalized for having too many men on the ice at 1:18 of overtime. Edmonton needed just 18 seconds on the power play before Hyman scored at the front of the net after redirecting a beautiful feed from Oilers captain Connor McDavid.

This was the second straight night that the Oilers won in overtime, following their 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday (Feb. 4) when Connor Brown scored at 2:33 of sudden death. The Oilers have now played 13 overtimes this season. They’ve won a league-leading nine times, lost three times, and gone to a shootout once.

Draisaitl Takes Art Ross Lead

In addition to scoring his league-high 38^th goal of the season, Draisaitl also assisted on Skinner’s goal, giving the German centre a total of 81 points through 54 games.

With that, Draisaitl leapfrogs Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon into top spot on the NHL points leaderboard. MacKinnon has 80 points through 55 games in 2024-25.

The NHL’s schedule-maker couldn’t have scripted things any better, because Edmonton is next in action against the Avalanche, at Rogers Place on Friday (Feb. 7), in what will be both teams’ final game before the NHL shuts down for a couple weeks during the 4 Nations Face-Off. Friday’s tilt in Edmonton could very well decide who heads into the break with the lead in the Art Ross Trophy race.