Oilers dispose of Canucks

Vancouver Canucks vs Edmonton Oilers 3-6 (1-3, 1-1, 1-2)

The Canucks were 7-3-0 in their last ten and had already qualified for the playoffs sitting at the top of the Western Conference. Edmonton, with a mere ten games to go in the regular season were still fifth and had been so since the half way mark of the season. The teams were pursuing their 50th and 40th win respectively. Edmonton started Nikolai Khabibulin in net, but with O'Sullivan still injured they made no line changes.

There was no sense of entitlement from the visitors who worked dilligently straight from the opening face off. A label of quality for the home team was that they matched that intensity, which provided an entertaining period. Dustin Penner powered his way to some space in front of Luongo and tipped in a shot from Ales Hemsky, before delivering Brooks Laich with a gift of a pass on a power play mid-way through the period. But, as Oilers fans, management and players all know, leads are a problem to Edmonton. Ethan Moreau took a horrible major for clipping with six to go in the period and it catered to the hungry Canucks power play. Daniel Sedin scored a mere fifteen seconds in and Vancouver kept producing big chances, but Khabibulin's terrific positioning and reflexes kept Edmonton ahead. Following a rebound from Tangradi's shot, red-hot Gilbert Brule added to the Oilers' lead late on.

Norwegian flash, Mats Zucarello Aasen introduced himself to the NHL by scoring his first ever goal in the league - though in a most dirty way, picking up a rebound at the side of the net. Eric Tangradi's 4-2 marker was more stunning, in that he absolutely obliterated Burrows to gain possession, exhanged passes with Brule and Laich, before driving into the crease to tip home the two goal lead.

The Oilers might have assumed that Burrows' rattled squash rendered him useless for the remainder of the game, but he proved them wrong by cleverly picking the puck off Gilbert and moving in alone to score. Momentum shifted drastically in favour of the away team, and the pressure gave the Sedins some extended time to work a 5-on-3 power play. Again it was shot blocking and the spectacular play of Khabibulin that kept the ship afloat, despite tendencies of mutiny from Falardeau and Moore who both drilled holes in the keel by taking additional penalties to extend the onslaught. The home fans were relieved and extatic to see their team kill off the penalties and almost instantly go up to score on the PP themselves. Visnovsky jumped into the play to score on a back-door play. The air left the baloon, humpty dumpty fell down and led by Eric Tangradi, all the king's horses and all the king's men ravaged the remains as they added yet another power play goal late on.

Post season: "I am tremendously satisfied with our offensive output, less so with our discipline, but we made up for it by playing our best 4-on-5 and 3-on-5 hockey of the season" said head coach Kevin Constantine of the win. The Oilers had apparently found the fountain of goals and bathed ferociously in it. Eric Tangradi was turning into a real force since being traded for the Hurricanes, with whom he tallied a mere 13 points in 52 games, while he had put up 17 in 19 games after transferring to Edmonton. Brule, Laich and Penner also kept their encouraging streaks going.


Scoreboard
1st Period:
EDM - Penner (Hemsky, Gagner)
EDM - Laich (Penner, Petry) PP
VAN - D. Sedin (H. Sedin, Samuelsson) PP
EDM - Brule (Tangradi)

2nd Period:
VAN - Zuccarello Aasen (Bieksa, Pettinger)
EDM - Tangradi (Brule, Laich)

3rd Period:
VAN - Burrows (-)
EDM - Visnovsky (Babchuk, Gagner) PP
EDM - Tangradi (Visnovsky, Hemsky) PP


Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

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

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Petry

Khabibulin
(Hiller)