CHICAGO – Marian Hossa skated along the boards, pumping his right arm as the United Center roared its approval.
Go ahead and give two more points to the streaking Chicago Blackhawks.
Hossa scored 1:44 into overtime and the Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Monday to stretch their NHL-record opening points streak to 19 games.
Patrick Sharp set up the winning goal with a quick turn along the boards and a drive to the goal that led to two stops by Nikolai Khabibulin. Hossa picked up the second rebound and was again stuffed by Khabibulin before he poked it in for his ninth goal of the season.
“It is a great feeling, obviously,” Hossa said. “It doesn’t matter who’s scoring and lately we have a lot of different guys scoring. We try to enjoy the streak, keep playing a simple game and try to find a way to win.”
Said Sharp: “We keep finding ways to win. That’s important at any time of the year. Those one-goal games, we’re on the right side of them. We were thankful to pull it out today.”
Patrick Kane and Viktor Stalberg also scored for Chicago (16-0-3), which has won six straight and nine of 10. Ray Emery made 17 saves to remain unbeaten in eight starts this season.
The Blackhawks have earned 35 of 38 possible points so far this lockout-shortened season.
“It was a great third period,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “We had the puck in overtime, too. Great play by Sharpie going to the net, great patience and presence with Hossa to finish.”
Nail Yakupov and Jeff Petry had the goals for Edmonton, which carried a 2-1 lead into the third period but couldn’t hold on for its fourth consecutive victory over the Blackhawks. Khabibulin had 31 stops in the opener of the Oilers’ franchise-record, nine-game road trip.
Edmonton grabbed the lead for the last time in the second, taking advantage when Brandon Saad was sent off for high sticking. Yakupov, the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft, one-timed a pass from Sam Gagner into the right side of the net at 14:17 for his fourth power-play goal and sixth overall.
Chicago looked listless for much of the second, but rebounded quickly in the third.
“I think for us it would have been a big statement game if we were able to break the streak,” Gagner said.
“But at the same time, once we didn’t do that, we wanted to find a way to get it in overtime and were unable to do that as well. So it was unfortunate we kind of squandered the lead there.”
Senators 2, Canadiens 1 (SO)
In Ottawa, Peter Regin scored in the fifth round of the shootout and Ben Bishop made 44 saves in regulation and overtime, leading the hosts past Montreal.
Jakob Silfverberg also scored in the shootout, while David Desharnais replied for the Habs.
Maple Leafs 4, Flyers 2
In Philadelphia, Phil Kessel, Nikolai Kulemin, Mikhail Grabovski and Jay McClement scored to lead Toronto to a win over the Flyers.
Predators 5, Stars 4 (OT)
In Nashville, Roman Josi scored his second goal 28 seconds into overtime and the Predators edged Dallas in a game featuring six goals scored in the second period.
Kings 5, Ducks 2
In Los Angeles, Slava Voynov scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and the Kings defeated Anaheim for their fourth consecutive victory while snapping the Ducks’ six-game winning streak.
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