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Oilers ride rookies to much-needed victory over Ducks

Oct 29, 2007 - 4:58 AM By Tom Sheridan PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) - The Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup title last season, but that seems like a distant memory these days.

The Ducks' winless streak was extended to four games on Sunday in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers in front of 17,174 at Honda Center.

Edmonton, which had lost seven of nine coming into the contest, was outshot, 32-22, and trailed by a goal late in the third period when it tied the game on a Andrew Cogliano's shorthanded goal with 1:27 remaining in regulation.

In the shootout, the Oilers' Sam Gagner and Alex Hemsky scored while Edmonton netminder Mathieu Garon stopped Anaheim's Corey Perry and Chris Kunitz.

"I guess we found a way to lose tonight," Anaheim goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. "So it's disappointing, but you build with positives and I think there were a lot more positives tonight than negatives. I thought we deserved to win and if we keep playing that way we'll get a lot more wins than losses."

Edmonton's shorthanded goal came when the Ducks got a little sloppy with their puck-handling on the power play after Steve Staios was sent off for high-sticking with 2:57 to play in the third period.

The Oilers carried the puck deep into the Anaheim zone and Sanderson skated it out near the blue line where he let go of a slap shot that Cogliano tipped in from the slot.

"I went to the front of the net," Cogliano said. "We've been talking about going to the net a lot, and I just got a stick on it."

Garon, the backup to Dwayne Roloson, finished with 31 saves and the most acrobatic came late in the second period when he was sprawled on his stomach, but reached behind his back with his glove hand to knock Brad May's backhand shot out of the air. He was also face-down on the ice when he denied Kunitz in the shootout.

"I remember facing these guys maybe four or five times in the last few years in shootouts," said Garon, who was playing for the first time in 16 days. "I think maybe we won half of them. They have good shooters, but when you score two goals in the shootout you make it easier on the goalie."

Kunitz and Perry scored for the Ducks, who fell behind 1-0 in the first period then rallied behind a strong defensive effort.

"We didn't have a very good start to the game," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said, "But we got our game going. We played fairly well. We just seem snake-bitten. If something can go wrong for us, it goes wrong right now."

Edmonton scored first on Hemsky's third goal of the season at 12:41 of the first period. Shawn Horcoff won a faceoff and sent the puck toward the point where Hemsky stepped into a slap shot that blew past Giguere high to his glove side.

In the second period, Anaheim notched the equalizer when Perry won a battle for the puck in the corner and threaded a pass between the legs of Oilers defenseman Steve Staios to Kunitz, who steered it home for his fifth goal of the season at 11:51.

Perry put the Ducks ahead at 7:53 of the final period with a slap shot from just outside the top of the right circle.

Anaheim and Edmonton, the last two teams to represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals, have struggled out of the gate this season.

The Oilers entered the game in last place in the Northwest Division. The Ducks are in fourth in the Pacific, trailed only by Phoenix, which beat them at the Honda Center on Thursday, snapping Anaheim's 10-game home winning streak against the Coyotes.

Only Phoenix has scored fewer goals than the Ducks among Western Conference teams this season.

Edmonton's power-play woes continued as Anaheim successfully killed off four penalties, making the Oilers 3-for-48 on power plays this season.

Dustin Penner of Edmonton played his first game in Anaheim since leaving the Ducks as a free agent to sign a five-year, $21.25 million contract in the summer. He did not figure in the scoring. When he was shown on the video board during the first period, it drew a loud chorus of boos.

"I didn't know what to anticipate," Penner said. "You never fully understand what it is going to be like until you come back. That first period was a lot of emotions and memories running through my mind."