Oilers lose in overtime to the Yotes

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Tonight, in a game that probably even the fans at Rexall Place weren't watching due to the overlap of the World Junior Hockey Championships, the Oilers clawed back twice from two-goal deficits only to lose in overtime.  Shane Doan scored the second goal of the game for the Coyotes along with the overtime winner on a 4v3 power play.  It was good to see some fight left in this team along with a merciful Bettman point.  Nikolai Khabibulin will almost certainly be heading for back surgery on his herniated disc soon.  Tonight's OTL point shouldn't alter the course of a top-five pick, but might help the players feel just a little better about this team.

Oilers Tanking aka Fall for Hall

For Oilers fans, probably the story of tonight's game was the return of Fernando Pisani after a long absence from a combination of illness and injury.  It looks like Pisani played on the 2nd line with Ganger and Stone.  Shawn Horcoff himself seems to have recovered from his shoulder injury.  Tonight, he won 14 of 27 faceoff draws.  JF Jacques found himself sitting in the press box for the game.  Jacquary isn't off to a very good start for him.

Scoring Recap:

Vrbata opened the scoring for the Yotes following a faceoff loss just outside of the Oilers zone by Shawn Horcoff.  He beat Deslauriers five-hole on a quick play that amounted to a breakaway.  Shane Doan scored for the Yotes during the second frame off of a rebound.  Steve Staios left him open in front of the net on the play.  The Oilers rallied back to tie the game in this period with goals from Gilbert Brule (PPG) and Patrick O'Sullivan on a breakaway.  O'Sullivan beat Brygalov with a roof daddy backhand.

In the same period, the Coyotes restored their two-goal lead with goals from Hanzal and Prucha.  Deslauriers didn't respond to a dump in to his zone and Strudwick got pyloned on the chase with the end result being Hanzal putting the puck in the net.  Nilsson was stripped of the puck in his zone leading to Prucha's goal.

Last period, the Oilers got a lucky bounce when the Coyotes had a goal disallowed on their powerplay.  It was clearly a bad call by the game's officiating.  Later, Gagner set up Grebeshkov with a nice feed to close the gap to one goal.  Next, Dustin Penner scored with his leg knocking in a rebound to tie the game in regulation.

Fernando Pisani took a tripping call in the offensive zone that lead to Shane Doan's power play goal in overtime.  The Oilers had outshot the Yotes 42-30 and won 58% of tonight's faceoffs.  Ryan Potulny himself won 10/12 faceoffs.

Attendance at Rexall... 20 seconds after GWG

Game Video:

Comments (2)

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written by nillhouse, January 06, 2010

Toronto beat Florida tonight, so that should help out.

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written by Jay, January 06, 2010

Eric Staal is taking a leave of absence following the death of his sister-in-law. It's certainly sad and unfortunate to hear this news for his family. I hate to point it out, but it could solidify Carolina's place at the bottom of the NHL's standings.

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