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Smyth, Oilers head out on the road on a high note

Feb 12, 2007 - 6:00 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Ryan Smyth and the Edmonton Oilers needed a victory before leaving for a season-high seven-game road trip, and they got it in easy fashion.

Smyth continued his hot scoring pace and goaltender Dwayne Roloson earned his second straight win as the Oilers defeated the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-1.

Edmonton is 4-2-0 in its last six games. Atlanta is 1-4-1 in its last six.

"Tonight we had a couple of missed assignments, turnovers and bad decisions," Atlanta coach Bob Hartley said. "That's a team that is so dangerous on the rush and you put them on the power play and you know with all those skills, they're going to make you pay and that's what happened tonight."

Smyth tied the game, 1-1, at 9:40 of the first period on the power play when he banged in a rebound from the corner of the crease past netminder Johan Hedberg. The left wing has eight goals and 14 points in his last 10 games.

Roloson made 29 saves and is 3-4-0 in his last seven games. He has two straight triumphs following a stretch where he went 1-4-0 with 15 goals allowed.

Marc-Andre Bergeron, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Joffrey Lupul and Raffi Torres scored the other goals while Sykora had three assists for the Oilers.

Sykora entered with just three points in his last nine games.

After Bergeron gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead at 7:33 of the second period, Pouliot and Lupul scored 1:14 apart for a commanding 4-1 lead.

Pouliot tallied at 11:10 when his wrist shot from the slot beat Hedberg. Lupul scored at 12:24 when he banked a shot from behind the net off of Hedberg's pads for his second goal in his last 10 contests.

Hedberg stopped 27 shots in his first start since a 5-4 overtime loss to the Phoenix Coyotes on January 5.

"I felt really good coming into the game and I was excited to play," Hedberg said. "I can't say that you don't have the groove from playing every game. But at the same time, I didn't feel terrible out there either."

"I thought he (Hedberg) played well," Hartley said. "I'm sure he'd like to see the fourth goal back, but I don't think that we gave him a chance to win this game."

Eric Belanger, playing for his third club in three days, scored for Atlanta. Belanger was dealt from the Carolina Hurricanes to the Nashville Predators on Friday. On Saturday, the Predators traded him to the Thrashers.

Atlanta star right wing Marian Hossa, who is tied for second in the league with 33 goals, was blanked for the second straight game. Hossa had three shots on goal after registering just one shot in Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

The Thrashers fell to 1-2-0 in their season-high six-game road trip.