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Brodziak scores twice as Oilers tame Wild

Feb 13, 2008 - 6:46 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Kyle Brodziak recorded his first career multi-goal game in his career with tallies less than 2 1/2 minutes apart early in the third period, leading the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.

Fernando Pisani and Jarret Stoll also scored, Curtis Glencross collected two assists and Mathieu Garon made 38 saves for Edmonton, which won for the third time in four games.

"It feels really good to have a game like this," Brodziak said. "For a while, I've been struggling personally and haven't been able to put my chances in the back of the net.

"Tonight, when I got the chances, I made sure I was bearing down on them and I put them in the right spots. It feels good to be able to contribute like that."

Pavol Demitra and Brian Rolston tallied for Minnesota, which fell to 5-2-1 in its last eight and 9-4-2 since January 10.

Despite being outshot, 31-11, the Oilers carried a 2-1 lead into the third period. Greeting them in net, however, was Josh Harding, who relieved starter Niklas Backstrom.

Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said Backstrom was not injured, and that it was a coaching decision that landed the team's starting netminder on the bench for the game's final 20 minutes.

"I could see that he was a little nervous, or out of position a little bit," Lemaire said. "That's why at the end of the (second), we decided to give him a chance to recover from it."

Brodziak ended his 14-game goalless drought and doubled Edmonton's advantage just 2:09 into the third, when he gathered a rebound and beat an out-of-position Harding.

Just 2:21 later, Brodziak made it 4-1 by burying a rebound for his eighth goal of the season.

Rolston scored a power-play goal with just over four minutes remaining, but Minnesota was unable to get anything else past Garon.

"Garon was great in net," Wild All-Star Marian Gaborik said. "In that second period, we could have scored four goals easily. It could have been a totally different game."

Pisani opened the scoring with 1:48 remaining in the first period.

With Edmonton advancing on a 3-on-1 rush, rookie Andrew Cogliano fed Pisani in stride at the top of the right faceoff circle. Pisani then snapped a wrist shot past Backstrom for his fifth goal.

Demitra leveled the contest at 7:57 of the second period. Defenseman Kurtis Foster blasted a shot which Garon stopped, but Demitra tucked in the rebound for his 12th tally of the campaign.

Stoll regained the lead for Edmonton just over 2 1/2 minutes later, wristing a shot past a screened Backstrom for his 10th of the season.

Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish was particularly happy with this victory.

"It was fitting that we win a game like that, especially when we lose so many games where we outshoot the opposition over the years, particularly Minnesota," MacTavish said.

"It's the old adage of what goes around, comes around. We got one back and our goaltender got us a win tonight, which was a pretty impressive game out of Mathieu to get us out of the second period the way he did."

Stoll, however, is hoping Tuesday's victory was a sign of things to come.

"It's a good confidence-booster for the team," Stoll said. "We have to grab on to that and relish that situation. The leaders on this team need to make sure we keep them composed and in the right frame of mind."