Conklin carries the mail and gets through the route just a little frazzled as Oilers win 5-4 shootout at MSG.

Lineup
Smyth	Sarno	Hemsky	Brewer	Cross
Torres	York	Dvorak	Smith	Staios
Moreau	Stoll	Pisani	Bergeron	Ferguson
Chimera	Horcoff	Salmelainen
			Conklin
			Valiquette
Scratched: Laraque (hand), Reasoner (knee & ankle), Isbister (flu) and Salo (groin) out with injuries.

Postgame

Who knows how long the guy will have the job. Tommy Salo might really be injured and the MRI he was sent back to Edmonton for could really be legit. Of course there's also the possibility he's watching tapes from the '02 season, ie the last season that he wasn't horrible, in order to find out why he's currently a sub .900 PCT netminder.

It matters not to Ty Conklin who has been, at least for the next three games, thrust into the starting goaltender's role for better or worse.

Opening night of the Conklin Ty-nasty began on Monday and the best thing that can be said is the Oilers won the game.

The game pitted two of the last teams in the league to feature an uptempo offense and it was an easy mark to suggest that this game would feature more than the occasional flash of the red light.

The Rangers took an early lead when Bobby Holik deflected a point shot from former Oiler Tom Poti when the smooth skating rearguard wristed a shot from the right point. Shortly less than 11 minutes later and at the 14:30 mark to be exact, New York took a 2-0 lead when Boris Mirovnov sifted a shot from the left point past Conklin. It was a Salo-esque goal and that's the worst thing anyone can say to a goalie right now.

And yes I do know about Andre Racciot thank you very much.

It was a powerplay goal, get out of my head Sam Rosen, and the Rangers had tallied just three such markers before this game. But along comes the Oilers having allowed PP goals in 11 of their first 13 games and Mike York being unable to clear the puck certainly didn't hurt Mironov's effort either

But that was the bad news and the rest of the game featured the Oilers exploding for five of the game's last seven goals. In fact Jarrett Stoll spun in the slot and slammed one far side on Mike Dunham ust 22 seconds after the Rags PP goal and the Oilers were in business.

And boy were they ever. I guess I could make a "Brick" joke given the business segue but people I just won't. Ok, how about don't pay a cent of gratitude until 2005?

Happy?

2-2 read the scoreboard after Radek Dvorak finally broke his '04 season goose egg when he collected some PP post droppings from a Mike York slot blast. Raffi Torres then made it 3-2 as Mike Dunham wandered and found the blade of Smyth's stick with a clearing attempt. Smyth threw it quickly on the big tender and Torres deftly knocked it out of mid-air. Raffi contined his torr-id pace just shifts later as he collected his own rebound and threw it upstairs as Tom Poti looked on and unseemingly bothered to drive him to the ice.

Oh, the memories.

The Oilers were without Marty Reasoner in this game and Ales Hemsky has been without a defensive conscience for the better part of the season and both factors came into play as the Rangers brought the game to 4-3 with less than a minute left in the second period. Horcoff lost an own zone draw and Brian Leetch strode off the left point and past Hemsky to tap in the rebound.

Jason Chimera made it 5-3 on a nasty bit of early third period forechecking and Bobby Holik would set Oilers hearts aflutter with a floater past Conklin with less than five minutes to go but the Oilers would surprisingly tighten up and win the battles down low to close out any threats and eventually the game.

There were Ty-ny Bobbles, no I'm not sick of manipulating his name yet, from the rookie netminder but despite the four goals against the Oilers played a very solid game in front of him and for the most part negated second chance oppurtunites.

Now they head off to Boston and hope to close out the back to back games with a Boston Ty Party.

I told you I wasn't sick of it.

Three Stars

Raffi Torres - Two goals which vaults him into the team lead with six. He played 11:41 and did see occasional double duty by also playing left wing on the line he started with featuring York and Dvorak.

Bobby Holik - Two goals, played 17:35 and was 16/24 from the faceoff circle

Marc Andre Bergeron - A strange call for a third star I know but in a game rife with scoring chances he did some great work in his 13:53.

Oil Gauge

Steve Staios played just 24:00 and mercifully only 12 seconds of those were on the powerplay. York played one of the powerplay points and this should bring an eventual end to the 25 minute plus nights for Staios....23:59, two shots on goal and an even rating on this night for Eric Brewer. His partner Cory Cross looked to be the rusher tonight and Brewer did his best to try and hold down the fort.....His first goal and five shots on goal in 13:38 highlighted a night's work for Jarrett Stoll. He stepped in for Reasoner to pivot the Oilers very productive third line and his only blemish was a 7/16 night from the dot.

OilSlicks

Georges Laraque is apparently still injured. Personally, I could care less when it comes to wondering if and when he'll make his return to the Oilers lineup. Tony Salmalanien has taken his place on the fourth line and he brings a new dimension to that unit: the ability to skate. It's time to deal off Laraque right now if anyone still has enough interest to send along a goaltender or a defenseman.....Jason Chimera played like he really took his recent benching to heart. He was the Chimera who fought his way out of the pressbox of last season. He punished the Rags dmen and he skated miles and drove straight to the net.....Alexei Semenov was demoted before tonight's game as the Oilers needed to clear a roster space for Stoll

Next Game

Tuesday night at 5:00 MST when the Oilers visit the Fleet Centre and the Boston Bruins. The game can be seen on SN West.