Western Conference leaders Chicago Blackhawks gave Edmonton an unhappy ending to their long road trip with a 6-3 victory over the Oilers on Sunday.
Jonathan Toews and Steve Montador scored two goals each to lead Chicago’s offensive march and the Blackhawks (11-4-3) won their third straight and sent the Oilers home in a spin.
Edmonton (9-6-2) fell to their third consecutive loss as they wrapped up a six-game road trip that saw them finish 2-4-0.
Montador netted both of his goals in the first period to give the Blackhawks continued scoring support from their defenseman.
“We obviously have some talented guys on the blue line. Coincidence? I don’t think so. We’ve just been practicing it and talking about it for a while,” Montador told reporters after helping Chicago extend their conference lead to three points.
Toews added his second goal of the game 22 seconds into the second to quickly put the Oilers behind 4-1.
Edmonton got second-period goals from Jordan Eberle and Shawn Horcoff, but could not pull any closer than two scores behind Chicago.
Duncan Keith converted a goal in the second for the Blackhawks, who capped the scoring with Daniel Carcillo’s wrist shot with 1:45 remaining in the contest.
Patrick Kane, Nick Leddy, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa all recorded two assists in the victory.
Chicago will now be tested with a six-game road trip of their own beginning in Vancouver tomorrow.
WILD 3, DUCKS 2
In Anaheim, California, Matt Cullen and Jared Spurgeon scored 3:21 apart in the first period, while Kyle Brodziak also found the net and Nicklas Backstrom made 32 saves in Minnesota’s victory.
Defenseman Cam Fowler got his first two goals of the season for the Ducks, 1-5-2 since beating the Wild 3-2 in Minnesota on Oct. 27. The second one came with 48.5 seconds remaining on a screened wrist shot after Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle used his timeout.
Jonas Hiller was pulled by Carlyle at the end of the first period after giving up three goals on 15 shots against an offense that managed only one shot on net in the first 17:15 in a 5-2 loss to Los Angeles on Saturday night.
FLYERS 3, PANTHERS 2
In Sunrise, Florida, Danny Briere, Braydon Coburn and Matt Read scored, while Ilya Bryzgalov made 31 saves in Philadelphia’s victory over Florida.
Bryzgalov won for the fourth time in five starts.
Evgeny Dadonov and Tomas Fleischmann scored for Florida and Jose Theodore stopped 32 shots. The Panthers were held without a point for the first time in seven games.
Read scored on a penalty shot to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead. Read was awarded the shot after he was tripped by Jason Garrison. Read’s shot trickled through Theodore’s pads at 4:14 of the third.
In Sunday’s other game, it was:
‧ Canucks 4, Islanders 1
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