CHICAGO -- It was Niklas Hjalmarsson Legacy Night at the United Center on Thursday, but it might as well have been called Stanley Cup reunion night.
Hawks stars of the past and present converged as Hjalmarsson was honored in pregame ceremony, Duncan Keith made his first visit to the UC as a member of the Edmonton Oilers and Hawks center Jonathan Toews returned to the ice for the first time since Jan. 26.
Tyler Johnson played for the first time in four months after undergoing neck surgery, and defensemen Riley Stillman and Calvin de Haan were back too.
Hjalmarsson dropped a ceremonial puck, but real faceoff or not, neither Toews nor Keith wanted to concede.
During a TV break, the Hawks showed a tribute to Keith in a video montage as he received a stick-tap from players and an ovation from the crowd.
In between all these feel-good moments, the Hawks and Oilers actually played a game.
Alex DeBrincat’s overtime gave the Hawks a 4-3 victory. DeBrincat took a pass from Patrick Kane and blasted it past Mikko Koskinen for his 30th goal of the season 2 minutes, 23 seconds into OT.
It looked as if the Hawks would win in regulation. After the teams scored two first-period goals apiece, Dominik Kubalik broke the tie with a goal early in the third, and the Hawks held the lead — until the final minute of regulation.
The Oilers’ Evander Kane tied it with 49.3 seconds left, beating Marc-André Fleury to send the game to overtime. It was his second goal of the night.
Patrick Kane found his shooting touch for the third time in the last four games, and Kubalik broke an 11-game goal drought — with some help from Koskinen.
In the first period, the Blackhawks set the pace.
On the opening goal, a board battle allowed Sam Lafferty behind the Oilers defense, and he swept in a goal from net-front — his second goal as a Hawk.
But the Hawks got in their own way with penalties. They had too many men on the ice — twice — and the second infraction came back to haunt them.
Leon Draisaitl sniped a short-side power-play goal from the right circle off Connor McDavid’s backhand pass.
Patrick Kane answered two minutes later with his fifth goal in the last four games, but another dangerous Kane — the Oilers’ Evander — dashed the Hawks’ hopes of going into intermission with a lead.
Darnell Nurse swiped the puck from Patrick Kane below the blue line and pushed the counterattack to Draisaitl. Draisaitl centered to Evander Kane, who scored the tying goal with 34 seconds left in the first.
Four minutes into the second, Koskinen made a great stop on Kubalik’s one-timer, set up by Patrick Kane’s cross-ice pass.
The Hawks had a couple of iffy calls against them, particularly a period interference call against de Haan in the second. But they killed the penalty.
