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Torres tallies twice as Oilers end skid

Oct 19, 2007 - 6:04 AM GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- Raffi Torres came up with a big performance at the right time for the Edmonton Oilers.

Torres scored a pair of goals and Dwayne Roloson made 39 saves as the Oilers halted a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 triumph over the Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday.

Ales Hemsky collected two assists for Edmonton, which scored just five goals during its slide.

"It wasn't a pretty game overall from our standpoint, but we needed a win," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "There have been a lot of nights this year where I felt good about the way we played and lost the game. But tonight was the polar opposite where we won the game but don't feel that good about the way we played."

With the game even at 2-2, Torres capped his two-goal performance in unusual fashion.

Coyotes goaltender Alex Auld made a successful pokecheck on Hemsky and kicked away the puck with his right skate. But Torres, who was following the play, blindly backhanded the puck, which caromed off Auld's right pad and into the net with 8:05 remaining in the third period, giving Edmonton the lead.

"I saw the puck at the last second, but I was kind of twisted around, so I just wanted to get it toward the net," Torres said. "Any time there is a breakaway like that, the second or third guy wants to follow it up to the net, and it worked out. I didn't even get it up, it just trickled in."

"They capitalized on the very few chances they had," Auld said. "I pokechecked the first shot, but somebody ran into me. Then the next thing I know, the puck is behind me."

Shawn Horcoff sealed the much-needed victory with an empty-netter in the final minute.

Playing in front of a crowd announced as 10,448 at Jobing.com Arena but considerably smaller in appearance, Torres opened the scoring at 6:19 of the first period. After receiving a pass from the left corner by Hemsky, Torres beat Auld to the short side with a shot from the left faceoff dot for his second goal of the season.

Phoenix had a great chance to pull even midway through the session, but Roloson denied Fredrik Sjostrom on a breakaway, making a right pad save with 10:05 remaining.

The Coyotes did get the equalizer 7 1/2 minutes into the middle session during a power play. After Roloson stopped Daniel Carcillo's redirection of Niko Kapanen's slap shot from the left point, rookie Peter Mueller buried the rebound while alone in front for his first career tally.

Edmonton regained the lead with 5:06 left in the period, as Kyle Brodziak deflected defenseman Dick Tarnstrom's wrist shot from above the slot past Auld for a 2-1 edge.

But Mike Zigomanis knotted the contest at 2-2 at 8:11 of the third. From below the end line on the right side of the net, Mathias Tjarnqvist made a backhand pass to Zigomanis, who lifted the puck under the crossbar for his first tally of the campaign.

Phoenix received an opportunity to take the lead early in the first period but failed to cash in on a power play in which is registered eight shots on goal.

"Any penalty kill is really important, but that one where they were all over us probably changed the momentum of the game for us," said Roloson, who lost his stick at one point during the man advantage. "Our guys did a great job. When you're out there for two minutes, your lungs are burned, everybody is burned. But they got a couple of key blocks."

Auld stopped 14 shots for the Coyotes, who have dropped four of their last five games.

"I'm disappointed we lost, but I really liked our effort," said Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky, whose club has tallied more than three times just once in six games this season. "We played a solid game from beginning to end, but let's face it - we need to score some goals."