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Horcoff tallies game-winner in shootout as Oilers edge Canucks

Nov 21, 2007 - 7:07 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- The Edmonton Oilers are the best in the business when it comes to sudden death.

Shawn Horcoff scored the game-winner in the fifth round of a shootout as the Oilers posted a 5-4 victory over the Northwest Division rival Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.

Dustin Penner had the game-tying tally in the third period and Horcoff added a goal and an assist for Edmonton, which is 5-1 in shootouts this season - the best in the NHL.

"It's fifty-fifty for them or for us, for the goalie and the player," Penner said. "Fifty-fifty and you go with the flow. You can't think badly about what you did before, you just go out and do what you do."

In the shootout, Trevor Linden tallied on Vancouver's second attempt to take the advantage. However, Ales Hemsky, who scored the game-winner in the Oilers' shootout win vs. the Canucks last Wednesday, answered when he deked goaltender Roberto Luongo to move the game to the next round.

After Luongo and Oilers netminder Mathieu Garon denied the next five attempts, Horcoff cruised in and fired a shot top shelf past the Vancouver goaltender to help the Oilers snap a four-game home losing streak.

"He covers the net so well down low, he's a really tough goalie to score on deke-wise," said Horcoff about Luongo. "He was a little back in his net, I saw an opening and shot it."

Earlier in the game, Horcoff gave Edmonton a 3-1 lead when he tallied on a power play with 53 seconds left in the initial period. The Oilers finished 3-for-8 with the man advantage.

"(The success on the power play) was a product of a lot of things," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "It just was terrific execution. We've seen a lot of that level of execution but not that level of offense to go with it."

Defenseman Tom Gilbert and Marty Reasoner also had first period goals and Garon stopped 20 shots while denying Brad Isbister to start the fifth round before Horcoff's winner in the shootout.

"We didn't play well for the first 40 minutes and we're lucky we had Luongo back there to save us," Vancouver captain Markus Naslund said. "We had the lead and if we could have stayed out of the box, we would have won the game."

Isbister, Alex Burrows, captain Markus Naslund and blue-liner Alexander Edler scored and Luongo made 25 saves for the Canucks, whose only two defeats in 11 divisional games have come in shootout losses to the Oilers.

"The last two games we lost (to the Oilers) in overtime - especially tonight - we were lucky to get the point there," Luongo said. "We've got to be aware of what's going on from the start."