Game 28 - Oilers win 4-1 over Red Wings!

The Oilers walk out of Joe Louis arena with two points vaulting them back into 12th place in the Western Conference.  Perhaps, they realized that it was pretty damn cold lying on the floor of the Western Conference.  Sometime you just need a little help from your friends.  Tonight, both Lebda and Datysuk helped the Oilers beat Jimmy Howard on two different occasions.  O'Sullivan found some anti-venom for the snake bites and managed to score two goals on the night.

Pat Quinn: "We didn't turn the puck over early, we had good puck placement early on, good forechecking, we didn't take any penalties.  It's our best road game."

The Detroit Red Wings look like a shadow of their old selves this season.  Perhaps, their biggest issue remains in goal with Jimmy Howard playing like a sieve for the second time that they faced the Oilers. For Oilers fans, we knew all along that JF Jacques and Ryan Stone were the keys to winning hockey games... Right??? lol...  JF Jacques had 7 hits on the night while Stone who's recovering from a medial meniscus tear only was credited with one.  Each had an assist on the night and finished the game at plus two.  In contrast, Detroit's fourth line of May, Abdelkader, and Maltby each finished the night at minus two.

In this particular game, the difference was the bottom six of each team.  The Oilers line of Moreau/Potulny/Cogliano has been playing pretty well recently.  As well, the usual combination of Stortini centering Stone and Nilsson was pretty decent by fourth line standards.  Nilsson himself turned Eriksson into a pylon to score a highlight reel goal.  Again, it's these rare flashes of brilliance that frustrate Oilers fans with Nilsson.  Even one of the game's commentators asked, with hands like that how does Nilsson only have two goals on the season?  (His other goal was an empty netter.)

Pat Quinn: "He's gotta hit the net more.  I've never seen a young man shoot so much and not hit the net.  He certainly leads our team for sure.  Maybe this will help, I hope so."

Datysuk and Zetterberg were dangerous all night long.  Holmstrom himself lost the handle on a spin-around shot from in front of the net on the open side.  Lebda scored on Howard with an assist from Visnovsky--wait Lebda actually just finished off Visnvosky's goal.  Datysuk deflected a pass from O'Sullivan past Howard himself.  This one was pretty brutal for Howard to let in, but for the Snake Bitten One, it seemed to boost his confidence.  O'Sullivan scored later on with a slick deke move.

Overall, the Oilers had a pretty solid first period.  The pairing of Staios and Strudwick got burned by Lidstrom, Burtuzzi, and Cleary for a goal with less than a second on the clock in the first period.  The second period was a little shaky for the Oilers who still out-shot the Wings by a margin of 11-8.  The Wings weren't able to get many shots on Deslauriers during the first ten minutes of the game when he's at his worst.  As well, they couldn't get many point shots through to the net.  Deslauriers has a pretty decent butterfly and they weren't able to beat him with low shots up close.

Random Thoughts:

• Each team only had one power play during the entire game.
• The one armed bandit, Shawn Horcoff, won just 3/12 faceoffs.
• The Oilers were 38% on the night for faceoff draws.
• The Oilers top line finished the night at minus 1.  Penner had two shots and was held off the score sheet.
• Steady Steve Staios wasn't so steady with 3 give aways on the night.
• Stortini went 5/7 at the faceoff circle centering the curious fourth line including Stone and Nilsson.
• The Oilers out-shot the Wings 36-28

Here's the Video:

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