Red Wings visit Edmonton

Detroit Red Wings vs Edmonton Oilers 5-2 (3-1, 1-0, 1-1)

The Oilers rested veteran netminder Nikolai Khabibulin after the thrilling win against rivals Calgary two nights ago. Brooks Laich had suffered from a skate bite the day before and prospect Teemu Hartikainen just made the trip from Springfield to take Laich's position in the lineup. The Red Wings were top of the Central Division with a 12-6-2 record before this game, while the Oilers had improved their record to 14-7-0 with their recent win streak.

The Oilers were torn apart from the get go in this one, the Wings machine gunned shots on Hiller at a ferocious rate, Bertuzzi sending them up by one on an early power play. A bright spot, however, was Teemu Hartikainen's debut goal, a mere 4 minutes into his NHL debut he took a nice pass from O'Sullivan and converted emphatically. From that point there was only one team out there with a real intent to win. Centremen Leion and Cullen, the latter reportedly on the Edmonton short list this summer, both scored before the first intermission.

The second included a few initial Oilers chances, though they were handily denied by Daniel Larsson, while Boyd Deveraux, former Oilers first rounder, put up the lone goal of the period.

Russian star Pavel Datsyuk added to the Oilers misery, before Ladislav Smid scored a consolation goal with two minutes remaining.

Post game: The press gathered around rookie Teemu Hartikainen, which may have taken some heat off the rest of the team, most of whom were lacklustre in this one. "We were let down by our effort, partly, and our goaltending" said head coach Constantine, a matter of factly, before adding that he expected the team to bounce back in the next match.


Scoreboard
1st Period:
DET - Bertuzzi (Zetterberg, Rafalski) PP
EDM - Hartikainen (O'Sullivan, Gagner)
DET - Leino (Deveraux, Rafalski)
DET - Cullen (Cleary, Zetterberg)

2nd Period:
DET - Deveraux (Leino, Bertuzzi)

3rd Period:
DET - Datsyuk (Kronwall)
EDM - Smid (O'Sullivan, Hartikainen)


Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

Lines:
Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
Cogliano - Hartikainen - O'Sullivan
Axelsson - Stone - Moore
Moreau - Falardeau - Brule

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Yonkman

Hiller
(Khabibulin)