Oilers edge Senators

Edmonton Oilers vs Ottawa Senators 4-3 (2-1, 1-2, 1-0)

The Oilers rallied together against a well-structured adversary in this one. The Ottawa Senators were centurions of the Northeast Division, holding a 31-22-4 record. Edmonton, both expectedly and inexplicably, made no lineup-changes from their defeat in Montreal two days ago.

Roman senator Cicero wrote "While there's life, there's hope." If there is any correlation between the two, the vigor shown by the Oilers must have jolted the fading hope of the away fans to new hights. Suddenly the Oilers looked like a playoff team, all lines were contributing offensively - but it was the power play combination of Penner, Tangradi and Gilbert that opened the scoring. Edmonton's woes with opposing top lines were amplified, however, as Jason Spezza's line produced some magic minutes after the opening goal. Fortunately for the Oil, sorcery was also in Dustin Penner's toolbag, and they were able to take back the lead before the break.

Out-of-form Lubomir Visnovsky gave himself actual reason to smile by blasting a Hemsky pass through a screen and into the back of the net a few minutes into the second period. It was not going to be a modern Teutoburger Wald, however, because the hopes of a metaphorical massacre was halted with former Oiler Horcoff's goal, which was quickly added to by Spezza's second of the night. The teams went to the locker rooms with very different feelings, the Oilers led all statistics but the one that counted. The Senators were regrouping and hoping to exploit the fragile confidence of their opponents.

The Oilers were ready to go in the third, building upon their work in the first two periods. The combination of Penner, Gagner and Hemsky was to overcome the Senators' legions with eight minutes to go, a goal that proved to be the game winner.

Post game: GM Kowalski spent the press conference adressing the critics of Edmonton's lack of lineup changes in a long losing streak. "I have been confronted with the Einstein quote on insanity over and over lately, with reporters holding that 'insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'" stated Kowalski after the game, elaborating: "but I think they are ignorant to the context of the quote, especially considering that our lines is just a part of the picture. We have focused more on strategy and mental preparation over shuffling the most visible variable for the sake of it". Apart from the first line's outstanding performance, there was all smiles for Eric Tangradi who had a solid game and added his first point as an Oiler to boot. "We're not out of it, though" said Kowalski, referring to Edmonton's form, "we've just shown we're not dead yet."

Scoreboard
1st Period:
EDM - Penner (Tangradi, Gilbert) PP
OTT - Spezza (Alfredsson, Michalek)
EDM - Penner (Hemsky, Gagner)

2nd Period:
EDM - Visnovsky (Hemsky, Gagner) PP
OTT - Horcoff (Volchenkov, Kuba)
OTT - Spezza (Foligno, Cheechoo)

3rd Period:
EDM - Hemsky (Gagner, Penner)



Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

Lines:
Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
Tangradi - Laich - Cogliano
Moore - Krysanov - Axelsson
Moreau - Falardeau - O'Marra

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Yonkman

Khabibulin
(Hiller)