Oilers open season with back-to-back losses
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Teuvo Teravainen had two goals and two assists and Connor Bedard had a goal and two assists as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Saturday night.
Seth Jones also had a goal and two assists in his 800th career NHL game and Philipp Kurashev scored the other goal to help the Blackhawks improved to 1-1-1 on the season. Petr Mrazek stopped 35 shots.
Corey Perry and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers, who fell to 0-2 to start the season after reaching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last season before losing out to the Florida Panthers. Edmonton has been outscored 11-2 in its first two games.
Calvin Pickard finished with 15 saves for the Oilers.
Blackhawks: Taylor Hall had an assist, giving him eight points (2G, 6A) in 12 career games against Oilers, who drafted him first overall in 2010. There were four former first overall picks playing in the game in Hall and Bedard for the Blackhawks and Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for Edmonton.
Oilers: Oilers defenseman Brett Kulak played in his 500th career NHL game. The 30-year-old has been a mainstay since arriving from Montreal at the 2022 NHL trade deadline, playing in all 184 regular season and 53 playoff games that he could.
The Blackhawks took a two-goal lead with six minutes to play in the second period as Bedard fired a shot glove-side past Pickard for his first of the season.
Draisaitl has a 16-game point streak (13 goals, 18 assists) against Chicago dating to Oct. 28, 2018, and passed teammate Connor McDavid (15-game streak against New Jersey) for the NHL’s longest active point streak against one opponent.
The Oilers host the Flames on Sunday and the Blackhawks wrap up a four-game road trip at Calgary on Tuesday.