Oilers eclipse Stars

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

The Oilers left the lineup that routed the Wild intact, hoping to spur another 50+ shot performance from their shared confidence. The Stars were on a hot streak coming into this game, having won five of their last eight, trailing Edmonton by 3 points with a game in hand.

The home fans probably prayed for a similar offensive game as they had seen on the television against Minnesota, but the Stars proved a more difficult adversary. Edmonton attempted to play a more adventurous game, but could not push Dallas into making enough mistakes to gain the upper hand. Ales Hemsky did manage to crack the code, however, and found himself alone in front to receive and score on a Penner pass.

Dallas was beginning to get back into the game, but their belligerence got them in trouble - though they valiantly fought off three consecutive Oilers power plays in the second. The frustration appeared to get to the Oil, who dealt out a few blows worthy of penalties as well - but in comparision to their power play, the penalty kill unit knew how to exploit Dallas' defense. Moreau's fine check allowed him to gain possession and spring Laich on a breakaway which led to the 2-0 goal.

The captain, Ethan Moreau looked clearly inspired by his short handed performance in the third and added a goal of his own to block out the Stars who were in all kinds of trouble. Dallas looked sapped for power after that early goal and presented no realistic threat to the bid for two points.

Post game: "We played a very complete game, aided by a solid effort from our bottom 6 forwards, but also - admittedly - by somewhat of a lacklustre Stars performance" GM Kowalski added, bluntly labelling the opposition's performance. Recent call up Jeff Petry played another fine game and finished a +2 on the night.

Scoreboard
1st Period:
EDM - Hemsky (Penner, Visnovsky)

2nd Period:
EDM - Laich (Moreau) SH

3rd Period:
EDM - Moreau (O'Marra, Falardeau)


Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

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

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Petry

Khabibulin
(Hiller)