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Oilers snap out of offensive slump, down Blue Jackets

Nov 19, 2008 - 6:12 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- The Edmonton Oilers snapped out of their offensive doldrums with a stunningly efficient attack.

Shawn Horcroff had a goal and two assists and defenseman Sheldon Souray and Andrew Cogliano each recorded a goal and set up another as the Edmonton Oilers cruised to a 7-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

Defensemen Tom Gilbert and Lubomir Visnovsky each scored in a four-goal third period. Dustin Penner and Marc Pouliot also tallied and Dwayne Roloson stopped 37 shots for Edmonton, which snapped a three-game skid (0-2-1).

The Oilers' offense finally came to life after managing just eight goals over the last five games. Even more astonishingly, Edmonton's offensive explosion came on just 19 shots.

"We talked about it before the game, let's just go out and try and get more shots on net," Roloson said. "We didn't get that many shots, but made the most of our chances."

"That was a wild one," Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said. "We got the early power-play goal and they started coming."

Columbus generated more chances, but Roloson bounced back from Monday's 4-0 loss to Detroit.

"It was nice to get right back at it tonight," Roloson said. "You have to give our guys a lot of credit. I was able to make the first save and anything that was around they were able to clear it. The guys just played great tonight."

"He was really on top of his game," MacTavish said. "Rollie played really well last night, too - and terrific tonight."

Captain Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius both scored for Columbus.

"I think the best thing is forget about this game," Nash said. "We got a couple days off, work on our special teams and come back on Saturday (at Atlanta) and put this one behind us."

Edmonton grabbed a 3-1 lead after two periods thanks to goals from Souray, Cogliano and Pouliot. Souray scored a power play goal at 5:38 on the Oilers' first shot of the game - a sign of things to come.

Two shots later, Cogliano scored when he redirected a cross ice pass from Souray past goaltender Pascal Leclaire with 6:46 left in the opening period.

Pouliot scored with 7:11 left in the second, and Gilbert made it 4-1 with a power-play tally at 7:44 of the third. Nash answered with a power-play goal of his own 2:15 later.

However, the Oilers quickly quashed any thoughts of a comeback as Penner, Horcroff and Visnovsky tallied in a span of 3:03.

"The fifth goal was a killer goal," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We needed a save on the fifth goal, it's the one that broke our back."

Leclaire stopped 12 shots for Columbus, which outshot Edmonton, 15-4, in the opening period - but trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes.

"It's a little harder when you don't face many shots," Leclaire said. "I don't want to use that as an excuse. "It wasn't a good game for me. You try and figure it out as quick as possible and move forward."