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Hemsky, Oilers halt Flyers winning streak

Nov 2, 2008 - 10:03 PM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- After suffering through a five-game winless drought, the Edmonton Oilers have now won two straight.

Ales Hemsky scored his first two goals of the season Sunday, leading the Oilers to a 5-4 victory over the red-hot Philadelphia Flyers.

The Flyers entered the contest having won four straight, but faced a 3-1 deficit early in the second period after consecutive goals by Hemsky.

"It nice to score a couple of goals finally," Hemsky said. "I felt great with the puck the last five games. I was making plays, so I know that if I stayed with it, that it would come."

On his first goal, Hemsky skated around defenseman Braydon Coburn and slipped a backhander past goaltender Martin Biron with 7:33 left in the first period.

"On the first goal, I got a great pass from Ladi (blue-liner Ladislav Smid) and I had the speed to beat the defensemen," Hemsky said. "He tried to poke-check me and I got little lucky. I moved a little quicker and I got the goal."

Just over four minutes into the second period, Hemsky again skated around Coburn before cutting back to his right and unleashing a shot past the glove side of Biron, who finished with 23 saves.

"We really gave them a lot of room to execute their give-and-goes, their passes and their 3-on-2s in the first 40 minutes - and that hurt us a couple of times," Biron said.

Edmonton opened a 5-2 advantage midway through the second period on goals by defenseman Sheldon Souray and Dustin Penner, the latter coming with 8:02 remaining in the session. Hemsky picked up an assist on Penner's goal.

"We had a lot of chances tonight. It was really what the doctor ordered," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "It could have been a 5-2 game, but there a lot of chances on both ends. It was a good remedy for what has been ailing us as an offense.

Jeff Carter scored his seventh goal in as many games with just under two minutes left in the second period, and Simon Gagne tallied just 20 seconds into the third to pull the Flyers within 5-4.

Erik Cole opened the scoring for the Oilers midway through the first period, but the Flyers responded on the power play a little under two minutes later on Mike Knuble's sixth goal of the season.

Gagne hit the post on a rebound attempt and the puck bounced back to Knuble, who poked it in from the front of the net.

Then Hemsky took over with his first goals in 19 games dating to last season.

"We did a pretty good job of establishing ourselves in the first period," Cole said. "It was good for us to get that first goal because we missed on a couple plays opportunities early on. We gained a bit of momentum with the win and how we play and we were able to get another good today."

Oilers goaltender Dwayne Roloson finished with 22 saves. He denied Scott Hartnell on a breakaway with 9:07 left in the third period to help seal the win.

"When you get behind early, you try to play catch up and the game then seems harder than it should be," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "If we played 60 minutes the way we did in the third period, we would have had a better fate. We get down and it starts to affect our whole mentality - and then we come up with all kinds of urgency."