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Edmonton Oilers rally back to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 6-4! After rallying back from a two-goal deficit, the Oilers managed to pull off a win at Rexall Place. If you watched this one, you might have felt like flipping the channel after the first few minutes of the second period. The Oilers and Jeff Deslauriers were off to a pretty ugly start to the game. Perhaps he was a little nervous playing at home, but Deslauriers gave up 3 goals in just seven shots and then a total of 4 goals in nine! Playing against the worst team at winning face-off draws, the Oilers managed to finish the night winning just 39% of the draws.Comrie didn't play due to illness and Dean Arsene drew in for the second NHL game of his career. Not surprisingly, Dustin Penner was flying during the first period. In particular, he drove to the net while short-handed and managed to cancel out Colorado's powerplay. Milan Hejduk opening the scoring in the first period after a few defensive zone errors made by Tom Gilbert while playing 4v4. Hejduk received a pass from the blue line at the side of the and Gilbert was too soft to contain him. Deslauriers left too much of the net open on a shot that he might have otherwise stopped. The Oilers answered back with the strong play of the "Horpensky" line. Hemsky fired a puck from the slot that trickled through Budaj's legs and Horcoff finished it off. However, Hejduk got his second of the night shortly thereafter from a feed from Matt Duchenne. This goal followed a calamity of defensive errors in the Oilers zone from the tandem of Gilbert and Strudwick. Consequently, Pat Quinn benched Tom Gilbert for a prolonged time frame after that shift clearly to send him a message. In total, Gilbert played just over 7 minutes during the entire game! At the start of the second period, Gilbert Brule entered the Avalanche zone and rifled a slapshot to beat Budaj on the short side to tie the game at 2-2. Here's where things started to get ugly. Hemsky turned the puck over in the neutral zone and David Jones fired a snap shot from just inside the blueline to beat Desalauriers. After watching the replay, Smid did provide a screen on the shot itself. With the Horpensky line providing some pressure in the Avs zone, Hemsky missed on a wide-open net from a feed from Penner. Kyle Kuniskey put the Avs ahead by 2 goals with a shot from a bad angle that went over Deslaurier's shoulder on the inside. After that goal, all hell broke loose with the Oilers lining up to head to the penalty box (5 Oiler penalties in total). Wilson levelled Moreau with what might have been a forearm or elbow to the head which went uncalled. Moreau left the game and Stortini immediately responded. Storts went to the box on an instigator call after. With less than 20 seconds left in the second period, Sam Gagner scored on a rebound form Visnovsky's point shot. With Moreau leaving the game due to a head shot, Stortini with the instigator, and well Strudwick starting the game as a 7th defenseman, the Oilers had to roll three lines for the rest of the game. Ryan Potulny scored the only powerplay goal of the night from either team to tie the game at 4-4 during the opening of the third period. Patrick O'Sullivan lit the lamp for the game winner with some hard work from Reddox and Gagner. Hemsky capped off the game with a slick move to get by Colorado's defender for the empty netter. For the most part, the Oilers powerplay was pretty ineffective during the game. However, they did out-shoot the Avs by a margin of 33-18. Dean Arsene was a farily low-event player. In total, he played just under 10 minutes during the game. He mishandled the puck behind the Oilers net which nearly lead to a goal against, but was otherwise not too bad. Overall, other than the hit on Ethan Moreau, the Avs weren't playing particularly physical hockey. The Oilers defensemen were doing a better job of passing the puck up the ice instead of skating it. Reddox played another endearing performance for Oilers fans with a nice shot block at the end of the third. Deslauriers started off somewhat shaky, but made a number of good saves later in the game. Well, that's enough--let's just enjoy the rare win!
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No way Budaj outplayed Deslauriers. Deslauriers certainly wasn't perfect (Cumiskey's goal), but he was able to keep it together and shut the Avs down after giving up 4 goals - especially while the Oilers were all marching to the box in the 2nd.
Anyway this was fun and I'm glad we got an entertaining game. The Avs and Oil wrap up the series in April - maybe we can do something again around that time.