Edmonton Oilers 3 (SO) - Dallas Stars 2 - Horcoff gets his Scorecoff On!

The Oilers defeat the Stars for the second time this year in a shoot-out win. After taking the first period off, the Oilers found themselves down 2-0 after being outshot 19-10. When you're facing a better goalie with a better team in front of him, it was not a good situation to be in for the Oilers.

For the Dallas Stars, they absolutely dominated the first period, then seemed to get complacent leaving Marty Turco to keep them in the game. The Dallas Stars were cycling the puck like the Sedins in the Oilers zone while also creating problems with their fast transition game.

The Oilers were two players short of a first-line and Penner himself couldn't carry the load of two defensively weak kids. His line finished the night at a minus two while being kept off the scoreboard.

Ladislav Smid - Scores First Goal in 152 games - Dominant Performance earns him a 3rd Star

Game Recap:

The first ten minutes of the game were well-played by both teams. Half way through the opening stanza, the Oilers completely fell apart and were dominated by the Dallas Stars. The Stars used speed through the neutral zone and strong cycling in the corners to create all sorts of problems for the Oilers. Sam Gagner rode shotgun well enough when he had both Ales Hemsky and Dustin Penner driving the bus. Big Dustin Penner, can't carry both Brule and Gagner--especially when he's also saddled with Staios and Strudwick for defense. Jamie Benn opened the scoring for Dallas with these players on the ice. With just 30 seconds left in the first, James Neal put the Stars ahead by two. For the Oilers, their defensive zone coverage was terrible.

JF Jacques failed to beat Turco on a 2v1 rush with Patrick O'Sullivan. Turco's glove hand was hot all night including during the shoot-out itself. Cogliano looked decent in the opening period, though his finishing ability remains poor. Cogliano lead the team wth both 3 giveaways and 3 missed shots (tied with Moreau) for the game. The Oilers top two lines struggled during much of the game and O'Sullivan went 2/8 on the faceoff circle with 2 giveaways, 2 missed shots, and only one shot on net.

To the Oilers credit, they came back strong in the second period and outshot the the Stars (11-9) while also closing the gap with a goal from Visnovsky. Robert Nilsson set up Visnovsky with a shot from the point which beat Turco though traffic. The Oilers bottom two lines were probably two of their better lines during this game.

Ladislav Smid scored his first goal in 152 NHL games while the Oilers third line was on the ice. There was just over 3 minutes left remaining on the clock. Smid himself had a dominant performance this game with a team leading 9 hits, a goal, an assist, and a plus two rating. If you didn't notice, he had more than twice as many hits as JF Jacques (3) and Ryan Stone (1) combined.

The Oilers power play failed to convert or do much with three opportunities. The top unit shuffles the puck around until they can get it to Souray to crack a Dallas defenders shin pad. The Dallas Stars did an excellent job of closing shooting lanes and the predictable pass to Souray was pretty ineffective. Often, the Oilers second power play unit looked more effective to my eye.

For the shoot-out, the Oilers goals came from O'Sullivan who's snake bitten at all times except during the extra minutes along with Horcoff. It's about time Pat Quinn's chosen Robert Nilsson and Horcoff based on their career records. I have as much completely heterosexual man love for Dustin Penner as anyone, but it does pain me to see him embarrass himself on the shoot-outs. Penner can do many things very, very well, but the shoot-out just isn't one of them. Ganger's probably taxed his usefulness in this department too.

Image from Andrews Stars Page

"Throwin' your rope before you make a loop ain't gonna catch the cow."

Why the Oilers Won:

The Oilers closed the shooting gap and score by turning up their level of play during the second and third periods.
Marty Turco played a very solid game and the Oilers managed to find a couple ways to beat him to send the game into extra minutes.
For the Oilers, their top two lines were not very good. Gagner's poor defensive zone coverage lead to a couple goals against in the first period. Dustin Penner had four shots on the night, but was repeatedly stoned by Turco.
O'Sullivan played yet another poor game and was largely ineffective.
In spite of the Oilers dismal top two lines, their bottom six players contributed on the scoreboard. At times, the Moreau/Potulny/Cogliano line looked like the Oilers best line on the ice. Cogliano still needs working on finishing his chances and the captain actually played a pretty decent game.
Jeff Deslauriers delivered a solid performance for the Oilers. Turco definitely out-played Deslauriers, but that's not a slight on Jeff's performance whatsoever. Turco was a thief and he robbed the Oilers every chance he had.
Pat Quinn finally used Shawn Horcoff in the shoot-out (Horcoff had a 5/9 career record). I liked that he also went with Robert Nilsson. I would have preferred to see Visnovsky used instead of Dustin Penner.
"Like tryin' to scratch your ear with your elbow." The Oilers might have to rethink their top six lines against teams with some strong players like Neal and Morrow among others.

For the Dallas Stars fans, the combination of an afternoon game ending in a shoot-out loss was a very unsatisfying experience. Here's the Other Six Seconds view of the game.