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Maple Leafs head out west to battle Oilers

Dec 14, 2010 - 3:32 PM (Sports Network) - The Toronto Maple Leafs will play the second of four straight games against Canadian opponents tonight, when they visit the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place.

The Maple Leafs ended a two-game losing streak with Saturday's home win over the Montreal Canadiens. Now, Toronto embarks on a three-game tour of western Canada, beginning with tonight's tilt in Edmonton and continuing with stops later this week in Calgary and Vancouver.

Toronto, however, has not fared well on the road this season, going 3-8-1 as the guest. The Maple Leafs have also dropped nine of their last 10 road outings, posting a 1-8-1 record away from Air Canada Centre during that stretch.

The Oilers, meanwhile, are playing the fifth test of a six-game homestand this evening. Edmonton, which will complete the residency Thursday against Columbus, is 2-1-1 on the homestand so far and 5-7-2 at Rexall Place this season.

These clubs met less than two weeks ago in Toronto on Dec. 2 and the Oilers notched a 5-0 victory in that meeting. Taylor Hall recorded his first career two-goal game and Nikolai Khabibulin tallied his 43rd career shutout to lead Edmonton to its third win in the last four encounters with the Maple Leafs.

The Leafs have won in three of their last five trips to Edmonton.

Toronto notched a 3-1 victory over the rival Canadiens on Saturday. Jean- Sebastien Giguere stopped 22 shots and Tomas Kaberle had a goal and an assist to lead the Leafs to the win.

Kris Versteeg and Phil Kessel also added a goal for the Maple Leafs.

"It was a big win for us and the fans," said Kaberle. "We knew they were coming in off a game and wanted to get on them early. It was a big two points for us."

Edmonton needs a bounce-back effort tonight after turning in an awful offensive performance in its last game. Roberto Luongo needed to make just 11 saves on Sunday as his Vancouver Canucks notched a 2-1 victory in Edmonton.

Jordan Eberle spoiled the shutout bid with five seconds left for the Oilers, who registered just 12 shots on net in their first regulation loss in the last seven games (5-1-1). The Oilers were just one shot over the franchise-low of 11 shots, which has been done twice -- most recently in 1999.

Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves in the hard-luck loss.

"Sooner or later when you do stuff like that, you're not going to win games," said Edmonton's Andrew Cogliano. "When you play a good team like Vancouver and a good goalie like Luongo -- when you don't get shots on him, pretty much at any point of the game, you have no chance to score".

Oilers defenseman Jim Vandermeer suffered an ankle injury in Sunday's loss and is questionable for tonight's game.