| Petr Grates Sens In Oilers Win | |
| Dennis King | March 15, 2004 |
Lowe's surprise aquisition keeps paying off as former Ranger compiles two assists in 3-1 win over visiting Ottawa.
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| Smyth | Horcoff | Isbister | Brewer | Smith | |||||
| Torres | Nedved | Dvorak | Cross | Staios | |||||
| Moreau | Stoll | Laraque | Bergeron | Ulanov | |||||
| Chimera | Oates | Pisani | |||||||
| Conklin | |||||||||
| Markkanen | |||||||||
| Scratched: York reaggravated his finger, Hemsky, Ferguson, Semenov, Bishai | |||||||||
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Some very odd things have happened when the Ottawa Senators visit the Edmonton Oilers.
Things like Boyd Devereaux notching a hattrick, for one, or maybe for three. Odder still is that Dominic Roussel's only career win as an Oiler happened in Edmonton versus the Sens.
So if you had a friend who was the optimist to your pessimist when discussing a potential Oilers victory on Sunday night and in his defense exclaimed, "hey, strangers things have happened.", well, that guy wasn't whistling dixie.
The Oilers had the element of the unexpected on their side heading into the Sunday night matchup and yes all the home games are must win affairs at this point. The Sens had played the previous night in Vancouver and they elected to start backup Martin Prusek for the second straight game.
The first was a very uneventful affair. Isbister enjoyed a chance early on but couldn't find the net and Chimera took a nice feed from Pisani but chipped it past the net. Ottawa would open the scoring when Cross and Staios ran aground in their own end and Havlat found himself alone long enough to drift a slot shot by Ty Conklin for his 28th of the season.
But the Oilers caught fire in the second period and won the game in it's middle 20. Edmonton outshot Ottawa 11-3 in the frame and would finally mark just past the midway point of the period. Petr Nedved found Dvorak in the slot and the exciteable right winger spun and threw a no look backhand over the left shoulder of Prusek.
45 seconds later it was 2-1 when Laraque found Horcoff off to the side and he centred it to Moreau. Big #18 outbattled Sens defenseman Brian Pothier and got off the initial shot before sweeping home the backhand.
Ty Conklin made the big save when he had to and that kept it at 2-1 even though he nearly contributed to his own folly. Conklin is fond of playing the puck and is usually quite good at it but I don't know if it's a case of poor communication or the Oilers not used to a netminder that can stickhandle but sometimes his forays don't end well. This was almost another as he threw the puck to an unoccupied area, at least not occupied by an Oiler. The puck would eventuall find it's way to Smolinski on the right wing and Conklin quickly shuffled across the net to stop it with his skateblade.
Laraque would then cap his impressive effort by contributing to the third goal as well when he extracted a holding penalty from Sens rearguard Todd Simpson with a little under two minutes left to go in the frame.
Just 14 seconds after the infraction the Oilers struck with Nedved found Torres down low and the fiery redhead threw a bad angle shot on and eventually past Prusek to effectively end his night and the game.
The Sens looked rather disinterested in the third and couple that with a strange defensive steel from the Oilers and the third period was entirely non-eventful.
The Oilers will need to run the remaining five game home junket table and holding a lead seems to be their biggest problem.
Maybe this was a baby step that could lead to a playoff walk.
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| Radek Dvorak - Tonnes of hustle and a goal to boot. | |||||
| Petr Nedved - Hard to fault a guy with two assists in a game where only four goals were scored. | |||||
| Marc Andre Bergeron - It's a home game so he didn't get the harder matchups but he has really looked controlled and comfortable in the last five games. | |||||
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Blues lost vs Cgy so Oilers trail them by four points with one HTH remaining. Preds lost in OT in Det so Edm trails them by five points with HTH remaining and it's on Friday night at Rexall. Kings won over visiting Anaheim and the Oilers have two HTH vs the Kings and trail them by five as well. So it's the Blues and one of the remaining two the Oilers have to hunt.
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The benefit of a two goal lead and a tired Sens team meant that MacTavish could more generously allocate his defensive icetime. Only Brewer and Smith topped the 20 minute mark and it was a good night to get them a brief respite from the dogged days of March...Also of note, of the four Oilers pivots no one took less than 11 draws and no one took more than 14. So the wealth was truly spread...Mike York sat his second consecutive game and pronounced himself day to day even though other estimates have him at 7-10 days which just about means the next six games, ie the season. It would be nice for him to return just so the Oilers could bench one of Isbister or Chimera and thus they would feel more comfortable in really spreading the icetime between four lines...Finally, Ales Reddenbocker reports that the bar-B-Q seasoning really does taste like Bar-B-Q. Second straight game in the pressbox for Hemsky and third of four games. He could've been a contender.
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Tuesday night as the Oilers entertain the Blue Jackets. The game can be seen at 7PM MST on SN West. Also on Tuesday night the Kings host the Blues and the Preds visit Vancouver.
