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Maple Leafs hope to halt skid versus Oilers

Dec 2, 2010 - 6:47 PM (Sports Network) - The Toronto Maple Leafs will try to end a three-game slide when they welcome the busy Edmonton Oilers for tonight's battle at Air Canada Centre.

The Maple Leafs had won three out of four from Nov. 16-22, but the club has since lost three in a row, going 0-2-1 during that stretch. Toronto has scored a total of four goals on this current slide and three of those tallies came in Tuesday's overtime loss to visiting Tampa Bay.

The Oilers, meanwhile, are playing the third and final segment of a three-game road trip tonight. Edmonton, which is 5-6-3 as the guest this year, began the swing with Monday's 4-1 win in Ottawa and then notched an overtime victory Wednesday night in Montreal.

Dustin Penner netted the game-winning goal with 2:32 left in the extra session, leading Edmonton to a 4-3 win over the Canadiens. Penner forced a turnover in the neutral zone and beat Montreal's Carey Price on the breakaway, slipping a backhander between the goaltender's pads.

Ales Hemsky, back in the Edmonton lineup after missing three games with a groin injury, and Sam Gagner scored 3:08 apart in the third period to erase a two-goal deficit. Devan Dubnyk made 36 saves in the win.

Kurtis Foster added a power-play goal for the Oilers, who won back-to-back games for the first time since opening the season with consecutive wins over Calgary and Florida.

Edmonton last won three in a row from April 5-10 of last season.

Oilers goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin has missed the last seven games, but he served as the backup to Dubnyk on Wednesday and the Russian veteran is expected to return from a groin injury to get the start in net tonight. Khabibulin is 12-13-0 with a four ties in 29 career starts against Toronto. He is 4-10-1 in 15 games for the Oilers this season.

The Maple Leafs opened a three-game homestand in their last game and are 6-4-3 as the host this season.

Toronto came very close to pulling out a win against the Lightning, but wound up losing the contest in overtime. Martin St. Louis tied the game at 3-3 for Tampa with just nine seconds left in regulation and Simon Gagne scored 1:15 into the extra session to lift the Bolts to the 4-3 victory.

Nikolai Kulemin tallied twice and Kris Versteeg scored once for the Maple Leafs, who blew a two-goal, third-period lead. Jonas Gustavsson was tagged in the loss for four goals on 39 shots.

Gustavsson is expected to get his seventh straight start in net tonight, but Jean-Sebastien Giguere should be available to serve as the backup. Giguere has been sidelined since suffering a strained groin against Nashville on Nov. 16.

Toronto and the Oilers split a pair of meetings in 2009-10 and each team won a game on home ice. The Maple Leafs have taken six of nine overall in the series and Edmonton has dropped nine of its last 11 games in Toronto.

The Leafs and Oilers will meet one more time this season when Edmonton hosts Toronto on Dec. 14 at Rexall Place.