Wednesday, November 19, 2008
COLUMBUS (AP) — Shawn Horcoff had a goal and two assists to lead seven multiple-point scorers, and the Edmonton Oilers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 7-2 rout of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Sheldon Souray, Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert and Lubomir Visnovsky had a goal and an assist, and Marc Pouliot and Dustin Penner scored for the Oilers, who were outshot 39-19 and went a stretch of nearly 20 minutes without putting a puck on net. They stayed in it behind superb goaltending by Dwayne Roloson and pulled away late in the third period with three goals in a span of 3:03.
Sam Gagner had two assists, and Ales Hemsky finished with three.
Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash had a goal and assist for Columbus, which was 5-1-3 in its previous nine. The Blue Jackets fell apart behind their NHL-worst power play and the 1-for-7 effort against Edmonton.
Columbus failed to gain momentum at key points of the game early in the second and third periods with the Blue Jackets trailed by two goals. When they did create chances, Roloson was there to stop Jason Chimera, Fredrick Modin and R.J. Umberger on prime chances.
Pascal Leclaire allowed seven goals, and Edmonton went 2-of-3 on the power play.
After Nash scored to make it 4-2 midway through the third period, Penner — a healthy scratch the previous two games — scored his fourth goal at 12:06. Horcoff netted his fifth at 14:38, and Visnovsky closed out the spurt with a long slap shot to make it 7-2 at 15:09.
Despite being outshot 15-4 in the opening period, the Oilers took a 2-0 lead.
Hemsky slid a pass to Souray, who fired a one-timed shot from the high right circle past Leclaire for his sixth goal — third on the power play — at 5:38.
After weathering more Columbus pressure, Oilers forward Erik Cole started an odd-man rush. Souray faked a shot, crossing into the right side of the zone, and threaded a pass to Cogliano on the back side for a tap-in goal at 13:14 to make it 2-0.