Edmonton hit Texas to engage Stars

Edmonton Oilers vs Dallas Stars 5-3 (2-0, 1-0, 2-3)

Gilbert Brule was sent down to Springfield following his recovery from bruised ribs, allegedly to 'give him some top line minutes and power play time'. It is likely that Edmonton wants to get a better look on newly acquired forward Krysanov, thus forcing Brule down in the process. Edmonton made just the goalie change from last game.

Despite a solid record so far, Edmonton had something to prove and showed it early - Anton Babchuk scored a thumping power play goal after five minutes of the period. Dallas put up some immediate resistance, but was crushed by the Oilers' speed and tenacity, something that provided Cogliano with a partial breakaway on which he scored.

The Stars struggled heavily to keep the Oilers to the outside, away from the bigger chances. Time and time again Penner, Cogliano, Moore and Laich took the puck into Turco's crease, trying to create goals from pure force of will. Moore succeeded fourteen minutes into the period, converting Axelsson's pass into goal number 3 of the game. In the meanwhile, Jonas Hiller was keeping Dallas off the score board with some good technical netminding.

Hiller was, however, not able to keep Loui Eriksson from taking advantage of a failed break-out pass, which gave the Swede an easy job to bring Dallas back into the picture. Sadly for the hopeful home fans at the American Airlines Center, Andrew Cogliano had destructive plans for that very picture, as he ripped it apart by sniping home a fantastic goal from the high slot. Flashy winger Ales Hemsky followed suit and ripped home another Oilers goal before a minute had passed. Even though Ribeiro and Morrow were allowed to score late goals, Edmonton controlled this game quite well throughout.

Post game: "Our special teams have certainly improved, especially the penalty killing" noted head coach Constantine, but added that "we're looking to re-structure our defensive effort 5-on-5 to better shut down our opponents. Right now we're giving away too much space around our net and we're seeing the consequences lately." Cogliano's goals were his 2nd and 3rd in 2 games.



Scoreboard
1st Period:
EDM - Babchuk (Gagner) PP
EDM - Cogliano (Grebeshkov, Laich)

2nd Period:
EDM - Moore (Axelsson, Krysanov)

3rd Period:
DAL - Eriksson (Niskanen)
EDM - Cogliano (O'Sullivan, Visnovsky)
EDM - Hemsky (Gagner, Penner)
DAL - Ribeiro (Eriksson, Allen)
DAL - Morrow (Ribeiro, Eriksson)


Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

Lines:

Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
Cogliano - Laich - O'Sullivan
Axelsson - Krysanov - Moore
Moreau - Falardeau - Stone

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Yonkman

Hiller
(Khabibulin)