Oilers plague the Wild once more

Minnesota Wild vs Edmonton Oilers 2-5 (1-3, 1-0, 0-2)

Due to a minor injury, Patrick O'Sullivan was out for this game and Gilbert Brule drew in in his place. Edmonton also made a technical change to their lineup in front of this game, listing Tangradi-Laich-Brule as their first line, making Penner-Gagner-Hemsky their second unit. Throughout the year, Minnesota had been the undefended yet wealthy chapel to Edmonton's pillaging raiders. This would prove to be another pirate attack.

The Oilers had barely come ashore before they struck gold bullion and gemstones. Ales Hemsky's marvellous stickhandling was an undeniable revelation as he swept by the defense to score on Harding. Another goal followed shortly thereafter, though Gagner's goal was uglier, scored from a broken play in front of the net. The Wild were running for the hills, and even when they had the fortune of going on the power play, Edmonton managed to pillage their fortunes with a short handed marker. Marco Sturm brought his team within two and thus provided some hope before the intermission.

Minnesota kept building on their play by keeping Edmonton to the outside for much of the second, though the home team was still the more offensively dominant of the two. Flashy forward Nik Zherdev was nonetheless the lone scorer of the middle frame, taking a nice wrist shot from in close that beat Khabibulin.

The Oilers scored early in the third and that appeared to deflate their opponents to the degree that the rest of the period became a comfortable event for fans and players alike. The recently composed third line centered by Andrew Cogliano got on the board and salted the numerous wounds of the visitors with a sweet tic-tac-toe play that Harding bitterly allowed despite getting a piece of the shot.

Post game: "Be careful that your victories don't carry the seed of future defeat" GM Kowalski quoted philosophically, noting that Edmonton, though controlling the game, allowed the Wild to bring it within a goal before the Oilers put the game away. "I don't necessarily think it's detrimental to us, but the tendency is certainly unnerving if we allow teams to come back when we are in such command." Nevertheless, the offensive power the Oilers harness against Minnesota has been a bright spot all year. Both Grebeshkov and Brule broke long scoreless streaks.

Scoreboard
1st Period:
EDM - Hemsky (Gagner, Penner)
EDM - Gagner (Hemsky, Grebeshkov)
EDM - Moore (-) SH
MIN - Sturm (Bouchard, Havlat)

2nd Period:
MIN - Zherdev (Chistov, Hilbert)

3rd Period:
EDM - Laich (Tangradi, Brule)
EDM - Axelsson (Moore, Cogliano)


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)