Toews has 2 goals, assist as Blackhawks beat Oilers 5-2

Toews has 2 goals, assist in Blackhawks’ 5-2 win

EDMONTON, Alberta — Jonathan Toews scored two goals and added an assist as the Chicago Blackhawks won their sixth game in a row, knocking off the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Saturday night.

Patrick Kane, Kris Versteeg and John Madden also scored for the Blackhawks (14-5-2), who built on a 7-1 win over Calgary for their second consecutive road win at the start of a six-game trip.

Sheldon Souray and Dustin Penner had goals for the Oilers (9-11-3), who have lost five of six and eight of 10.

Early in the game, Blackhawks rookie forward Bryan Bickell bounced off Penner while trying to make an open-ice hit, but instead hit his head on the ice following the collision. Bickell was helped to the dressing room and was unable to return.

Chicago opened the scoring nearly four minutes in as Kane took the puck from Ladislav Smid behind the net and passed to Toews, who put his own rebound behind Jeff Deslauriers.

The Oilers tied it less than a minute later when Blackhawks defenseman Cam Barker accidentally swept the rebound of Souray’s shot past goalie Cristobal Huet.

Souray gave that goal back 3 minutes later when he gloved Versteeg’s high shot into Edmonton’s net.

The Blackhawks made it 3-1 with 8 minutes left in the first when Kane shrugged off Liam Reddox and scored between Deslauriers’ legs. Deslauriers started in place of Nikolai Khabibulin, who was sidelined by a bad back.

Chicago went up by three goals on a heads-up play by Andrew Ladd, who picked up a rebound and dished it to Madden, who scored into an empty net at 11:02.

Edmonton appeared to close the gap with a power-play goal with 0.1 seconds left in the second, as Shawn Horcoff poked a puck through Huet’s legs. But a video review determined that time had run out.

The Oilers scored on that same penalty to start the third, however, as Penner tipped in Steve Staios’ shot for his 13th goal — making it 4-2.

Toews made it 5-2 when he took a feed from the side boards and sent a shot high glove-side past Deslauriers for his second of the game and fourth of the season.

NOTES: With first-string goalie Nikolai Khabibulin unable to play against his former team, the Oilers scrambled to find a backup for Deslauriers in time for the game. They signed Torrie Jung of the Edmonton Oil Kings with the Western Hockey League on a tryout contract. The Oilers already entered with the most man-games lost in the NHL (122). Ethan Moreau (head), Ales Hemsky (upper body), Lubomir Visnovsky (undisclosed), Shawn Horcoff (shoulder) and Liam Reddox (foot) were all able to play. Forward J.F. Jacques (back) also returned from a seven game absence. … Marian Hossa is expected to make his Blackhawks debut next week following offseason shoulder surgery. … Blackhawks C Andrew Ebbett was claimed on waivers by the Minnesota Wild. … Chicago coach Joel Quenneville moved past former Oilers coach Glen Sather into 14th place on the NHL’s career wins list with 497 victories.