• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Oilers-Panthers Preview

Dec 6, 2009 - 11:36 PM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Edmonton (12-13-4) at Florida (11-13-5), 7:30 p.m. EDT

Edmonton's season-high six-game road trip didn't get started quite as planned, but back-to-back wins have helped the Oilers regroup.

The Oilers will try for their first single-season three-game road winning streak in three years Monday night when they face the struggling Florida Panthers in the teams' only meeting this season.

Edmonton (12-13-4) opened this trip by giving up four goals in the first 8:25 before eventually falling 7-3 at Vancouver on Nov. 28, capping a dismal 4-11-3 stretch that included a 1-7-2 mark as the visitor.

The Oilers followed up that poor performance with a 4-1 win at reigning Western Conference champion Detroit on Tuesday before overcoming a two-goal first-period deficit to beat Dallas 3-2 in a shootout Saturday. Center Shawn Horcoff netted the winner in the fifth round of the tiebreaker, giving Edmonton consecutive wins for the first time since a season-high three-game winning streak from Oct. 16-22.

"It tells us a lot about this team," said defenseman Ladislav Smid, who scored the tying goal with 3:07 to play in regulation. "This isn't the first time we've come back from a 2-0 lead for the opposition, so it's a great feeling.

"I think this is going to help our confidence as well. We just stayed positive in the locker room. We told each other 'keep your head up and we gonna get something back.' We came in the second period and third period with a great attitude."

The Oilers are getting some scoring punch from Lubomir Visnovsky. The defenseman has a goal in each of the last two games, giving him seven to go along with 13 assists on the season. He had eight goals and 23 assists in 50 games in 2008-09 - his first season in Edmonton after spending the previous seven with Los Angeles.

The Oilers, 4-8-2 away from home in 2009-10, will try to win a third consecutive road game in a single season for the first time since Nov. 13-Dec. 8, 2006.

They've won their last two visits to Florida (11-13-5), but they haven't played there since a 4-3 shootout victory Jan. 14, 2008. Edmonton fell 2-0 at home to the Panthers on Dec. 11 in the teams' lone meeting last season.

Florida is 1-4-3 over its last eight, with its only win coming 6-5 in a shootout against Colorado on Wednesday.

The team failed to build any momentum from that win, following it with consecutive defeats, including 2-1 in a shootout to Atlanta on Saturday. Tomas Vokoun allowed a tying goal by Ilya Kovalchuk with 1:04 remaining in regulation before getting beat on two of four chances in the tiebreaker.

Vokoun is looking to improve on his 36 saves from Saturday as he'll likely get his second start since having his ear cut in a bizarre incident with teammate Keith Ballard during a 4-3 loss to the Thrashers on Nov. 30.

"I thought Vokoun played a great game, considering the circumstances," coach Pete DeBoer said following Saturday's loss. "He really battled hard for us."

Vokoun, though, is 0-1-3 with a 2.76 goals-against average in his last five games.