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Red Wings try to get back on track vs. Oilers

Mar 9, 2015 - 3:23 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Detroit Red Wings hope to rebound from consecutive losses when they host the sliding Edmonton Oilers in Monday's encounter at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings had won three in a row before giving up five goals in each of its last two games, losing 5-2 to visiting Calgary on Friday before falling 5-3 in Sunday's road tilt versus Boston.

The Bruins went 2-for-5 on the power play and also scored two short-handed goals to cruise past the rival Wings, who still hold a seven-point lead over Boston for third place in the Atlantic Division.

Jonas Gustavsson allowed four goals on 23 shots in two periods of work for Detroit before leaving with an injury. Jimmy Howard relieved him at the start of the third period and allowed one goal on seven shots.

Gustav Nyquist, Luke Glendening and Marek Zidlicky accounted for the Red Wings' goals.

"We're putting ourselves in tough situations," said Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg. "When we have the puck, all of a sudden, they have the puck. In the second period, if you do that a few times, you'll get caught and eventually they will score."

Detroit has a strong chance at returning to the win column tonight, if its recent history versus the Oilers is any indication of how Monday's game will go. The Red Wings have won seven straight over Edmonton and are on a 16-game point streak (14-0-2) in this series.

The Red Wings, who will host Columbus on Thursday before going on a four-game road trip. have claimed the past eight meetings with the Oilers in the Motor City. Detroit is 18-6-7 at the Joe this season.

Edmonton, which is last in the West with only 47 points, has lost four straight and six of its past seven games. After getting a point in Friday's 2-1 shootout loss at Chicago, the Oilers yielded seven goals to Carolina on Sunday in the second stop of a five-game road trip.

The Oilers have lost four of their last five away from Rexall Place and are just 8-17-9 on the road this season.

Edmonton fell 7-4 to the Hurricanes on Sunday, as Elias Lindholm notched his first career hat trick and also added two assists to lead the rout. The Oilers held a 3-0 lead before the midway point of the second period before allowing Carolina to score six unanswered goals.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins recorded his second career hat trick in a losing effort and also added an assist. Jordan Eberle had a goal and two assists for the Oilers, who fell to 0-3-1 over their last four games. Richard Bachman allowed six goals on 34 shots in the loss, which saw Edmonton allowed the 'Canes to go 3-for-5 on the power play.

"They started playing in our end and they started creating chances," Eberle said. "They got one there, then we took a couple penalties and we couldn't seem to keep the puck out of our net on the PK."

Ben Scrivens is expected to start in net tonight. He has never faced Detroit.

Howard will likely start for the Wings and he boasts a 11-1-2 record and 1.88 goals against average in his career versus Edmonton. Detroit is expected to recall goaltender Petr Mrazek from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League on Monday to take Gustavsson's place as Howard's backup.