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Souray lifts Oilers past Coyotes

Dec 23, 2008 - 6:23 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Sheldon Souray may have the hardest shot in the NHL. The Phoenix Coyotes found out how hard it is Monday.

The 32-year-old defenseman used his impressive slap shot to snap a tie 45 seconds into the third period, lifting the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-2 victory over the Coyotes.

Zack Stortini, Marc Pouliot and Andrew Cogliano also scored and Dwayne Roloson made 27 saves for the Oilers, who snapped a three-game losing streak.

"When you lose these kind of games, especially with the situation we are in, it can kind of fester when you have a few days off," Souray said. "Not that we are out of the woods yet by any means, but to have a couple days to get away on a win and not have to think about it, that's good timing for us."

"We just needed to get away from the losing streak," Pouliot said. "It was important to get a win in this game, so we could feel better about ourselves and enjoy some time off."

Ales Hemsky and blue-liner Lubomir Visnovsky had two assists apiece for Edmonton, which has won five straight games over Phoenix. The Oilers have not lost to the Coyotes since February 27, 2007.

Martin Hanzal and Enver Lisin each tallied and Mikael Tellqvist stopped 23 shots for Phoenix, which had posted a 4-0-2 record over its previous six contests.

Entering the final session with 89 seconds left on Coyotes defenseman Kurt Sauer's infraction, Edmonton went on a 5-on-3 advantage when Viktor Tikhonov was whistled for a high-sticking double-minor penalty 32 ticks into the period.

The Oilers did not waste any time capitalizing on Phoenix's mistake. Visnovsky kept the puck in the zone and - after a give-and-go with Hemsky - teed up Souray, who blasted a one-timer past Tellqvist to give Edmonton a 3-2 edge.

"We had a couple opportunities 5-on-3, and I'm not saying it should be an automatic goal, but you have time to do what you want in that situation," Souray said. "It's just a matter of executing and we executed when we had to better than we have in recent memory."

Another power play helped the Oilers seal the victory when Hemsky set up Cogliano for an easy one-timer at the doorstop to provide the final margin.

Stortini netted his first goal of the season at 4:26 of the first period to open the scoring and Pouliot doubled the lead just over 1 1/2 minutes later.

"We weren't good enough in the first," Phoenix captain Shane Doan said. "Obviously, they jumped on us and because of that it put ourselves in the hole and that's where we lost the game. I think you give them three 5-on-3's, it's going to hurt you."

The Coyotes erased the two-goal deficit in the second period. Just over five minutes after Hanzal halved the deficit, Lisin's power-play goal with 2:23 left tied the contest at 2-2.

"That game ended a whole lot better than it could have," Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said. "We lost the momentum in that game in the second. We didn't have a great second, but we rallied in the third and were pretty decent there."