Oilers find no new tune in St. Louis

Edmonton Oilers vs St Louis Blues 1-3 (1-1, 0-1, 0-1)

The Oilers were clearly not out of their slump, but had begun to regain some of their confidence from earlier in the season, getting quality performances from some key players of late. The Blues were lingering outside of the playoffs due to a streak of defeats. Edmonton gave netminder Jonas Hiller another start, despite the shootout loss in Nashville.

The Oilers came out underprepared and got immediately punished, allowing Boyes and Backes to combine effortlessly on the penalty kill to strike first with a short handed marker. The goal was a rude awakening, but an awakening nonetheless - and the Oilers turned the game into a more preferable path by moving the puck faster and more accurately. Brooks Laich balanced the books by taking advantage of his own rebound mid-way through the period.

The game opened up in the second, and the teams exchanged rushes and good chances on numerous occasions. Hemsky led the offensive charge for Edmonton, dishing out superb passes in every shift, but inaccurate finishing left the Oilers behind when the Blues broke through on a late power play.

Young, emerging defenseman Ian Cole scored his first of the season on a shot Hiller should have saved, but that squeaked through to give the Blues a 3-1 lead with ten minutes to go. St Louis effectively shut down the Oilers' top lines and comfortably took their two goal advantage all the way to the final whistle.

Post game: "We let ourselves down by attempting to take short cuts to goals in the latter two periods" explained the Oilers GM, Morgan Kowalski, after the game. "A few players did quite well, but without better finishing we can't expect to overcome overall flaws in our game like don't trying to cut inside once in a while, if only to keep the defense guessing. Their d-men were very comfortable with our offense down the line, knowing what we'd attempt to do." Kowalski went on to state that there would be lineup-changes in front of the next game.

Scoreboard
1st Period:
STL - Boyes (Brewer, Backes) SH
EDM - Laich (Tangradi, Cogliano)

2nd Period:
STL - Sykora (Oshie, Perron) PP

3rd Period:
STL - Cole (Backes)


Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

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

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Yonkman

Hiller
(Khabibulin)