Oilers look for help out of town but aren't willing to help themselves as lack of discipline plays starring role in 3-2 overtime loss to Colorado.

Lineup
Smyth	Horcoff	Pisani	Brewer	Smith
Torres	Nedved	Dvorak	Cross	Staios
Moreau	Stoll	Laraque	Bergeron	Ulanov
Chimera	Oates	Hemsky
			Conklin
			Markkanen
Scratched: York reaggravated his finger, Ferguson, Semenov, Bishai

Postgame

The Oilers, for all their warts and frustrating stupidity, are honest to gawd trying. Lord knows this team isn't daunted by the long road ahead to playoff contention and night after night they put forth all the effort and emotion needed to compete.

And yes we know it's a young team and young teams will make mistakes. But this is why veteran teams make long runs in the playoffs and while veteran teams may be jockeying for playoff position come March, but their inclusion into the greatest tournment in pro sports has long since been decided.

So until that magical day comes when a new CBA allows this or any crop of Oilers forwards the in Edmonton longevity that will foster experience and savvy, we are forced to sit through all the mistakes and hope the Oilers succeed in spite of themselves.

The Blue and Copper seem to be quite chummy with the infractions of both goaltender interference and high sticking. One of those penalties would bite the Oilers on this occasion and a new transgression would be unveiled in extra time.

But first to the first, shall we?

It was hard to imagine how the Avalanche would react to their first game post Bertuzzi/Moore. They must have ran the gamut of emotions between Mon and Wed evenings and besides the on ice fray, there was also the matter of rearguard Derek Morris being shipped out with defenseman Ossi Vannanen shipped in. Not to mention two new forwards for their bottom six in Chris Gratton and Matthew Barnaby.

But all thoughts of a shaky start disappated once Joe Sakic marked on the Avs first shot of the game. It was Ty Conklin's first start since his removal from the IR and Ty was caught deep in his net and Sakic beat him blocker side. Now Burnaby Joe has just a couple of goals in his NHL career and it was his 31st of the season, mind you. But with Tommy Salo having skippered the Oilers ship for the last nearly five full seasons, the Oilers know all about how a questionable early goal with the ice still wet can take you out of the game.

So it was that it took the Oilers nearly 10 minutes to find their legs but once they did they found that Avs goalie David Aebischer was having trouble finding his as he nearly turned a harmless Dvorak shot into a goalmouth tap-in and would later fumble a soft point shot from Bergeron and leave the rebound in the crease as well.

But it was still 1-0 after 20 though the second period was very young when the newest Oiler tied the game.

Petr Nedved found himself alone and behind the Avs tender and he calmly walked around the right side of the net and rilfed a shot high over a leaning Aebischer's shoulder. The Colorado goalie wasn't hugging his post yet it still took a deft shot to find the seam.

But before any real momentum could be gleaned from this goal Shawn Horcoff would take a careless four minute high sticking penalty and with the Oilers so very close to killing the double dip, the Avs struck.

Milan Hedjuk began the rush at his own blueline and and would eventually dish it to Kariya who found Adam Foote gliding in off the right point. Foote took the pass and slanted his slanted nose towards the net and fired a shot high on Conklin's stick side. As the Oilers netminder tried to ready himself in the proper position, Steve Staios bumped his own netminder and the Avs scored with a scant 28 seconds remaining in the penalty.

The Oilers had two PP chances of their own to close out the frame but the best chance came while the Avs were trying to gain possession of the puck shortly after the second infraction and thus render the play dead. But Conklin rushed out of his net and the Oilers got their sixth attacker into the play and eventuall Dvorak would find Nedved deep in the slot but somehow Aiebischer got his shoulder on the shot attempt.

Edmonton would finally tie the game late in the third period, though, as their 19th ranked home powerplay finally clicked.

Big Georges Laraque had lumbered into the sheet as part of the Oilers second PP unti and he was setting up shop in the crease with the suddently deft passing Ryan Smyth suverying the situation in Gretzky's old office. Remarkably, Georges had the great hockey sense to kick himself out in the high slot and just to the right of the net and Smyth found him and Laraque found the twine with a quick snapshot.

And it was that overtime loomed for the sixth straight game but Jarret Stoll, twice an OT winner himself, came painfully close to giving the Oilers a chance to close this one in regulation time.

The shift following the Laraque goal saw the Moreau-Stoll-Laraque line get another shot and Stoll quickly gathered the puck in the high slot and whistled a high chance that cleanly beat Aiebischer but clanked loudly and crushingly off the left post.

Four on four and overtime is the time when Eric Brewer offensively, or at least attempts to, shines. This opening shift of this extra frame was no different as he rushed down the ice and eventually left go a wicked backhand that was saved at the last second. But the Oilers would somehow maddingly take a too many men penalty and Adam Foote shovelled home a Kariya rebound to end the game.

Three Stars

Petr Nedved - Scored his first goal and had three great other chances as well. Finished with six shots on net in 20:20 of icetime.

Adam Foote - Two goals and his usual brand of momentum killing defensive work. 25:11.

Eric Brewer - 26:21 was his log and he seems to be handling the workload extremely well.

Out of Town Scoreboard

Really only one game to keep an eye on tonight as the Kings defeated Jayne Gretzky's Pittsburgh Coyotes and swept a home and home series with the dogs and there's no need to attack desert to that term. This means the Kings are now six points up on the Oilers with a game in hand to boot. Yet, becasue of the two remaining HTH, head to head, games, they are still the Oilers best shot at playoff inclusion. Tonight we look toward the Savvis Centre where the 9th place Blues host the 8th place Preds with one point seperating the two clubs.

Oil Gauge

Mike York sat out this game as his finger was subject to substanial swelling from his first two games back in Chicago and Calgary. This surprises me because the Oilers don't have any kind of history of guys coming back too early, now do they? In his place was the outhouse rescuee, Ales Hemsky. The Paradiuce Prodigy played a little under seven minutes at ES and looked devoid of confidence on which ever shifts he did take....Shawn Horcoff had an assist and finished -1 and took a dumb penalty so it was an eventful night for the MSU product. But it seems like he creates or is part of a scoring chance every second shift and these last few games has marked the return of the guy who looked so great in last year's playoffs and carried over that play to Canada's winning entry in the World Hockey Championships. He's the odds on favorite to be the Oilers second line centre next season.....Georges Laraque has five goals, eight points and is +2 in last 20 games. Kudos to the big guy for not sulking when the Oilers correctly pointed out he needed to focus his energies more on playing the game rather than his vast off ice activities. This current #27 looks pleasingly like the '01 version when Georges as a 24 year old scored 13 goals and collected 29 points in what was just his second full season in the bigs.

Next Game

Friday night when the Canucks visit. 7 PM MST is the start time and the game is on SN West.