• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Gaborik, Belanger star as Wild top Oilers

Nov 16, 2007 - 6:51 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Apparently, Rexall Place cures all that ails the Minnesota Wild.

After missing five of the team's previous seven games with a groin injury, Marian Gaborik had a goal and an assist and Eric Belanger set up all four tallies as the visiting Wild defeated the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2, on Thursday.

Minnesota improved to 9-1-1 with two ties in its last 13 visits to Edmonton. The victory also snapped a five-game road losing streak for the Wild.

Belanger obviously was pleased with his career night.

"Four assists is one of those things where you're at the right place at the right time, and definitely I'll take that any night," Belanger said. "There's another game (Friday) - don't get too high, don't get too low when those things happen."

After Jarret Stoll scored twice in a 6 1/2-minute span of the second period to give the Oilers a 2-1 advantage, Gaborik leveled the game 48 seconds later.

Belanger had the puck behind the net and muscled his way to the front. From there, he backhanded a pass to Gaborik, who was standing at the side of the net for a tap-in, tying the contest at 2-2.

Defenseman Kurtis Foster's goal with 48 seconds remaining in the session stood up as the winner.

With no attractive outlets, Foster elected to slap a rolling puck toward the net from above the left faceoff circle. Screened goaltender Dwayne Roloson did not see the shot, which found its way around a bevy of bodies in front to give the Wild a 3-2 advantage.

"That was a tough goal (for them) to take," Foster said. "It was a pretty soft shot that went in, but that happens."

"They're a team you don't want to trail," Oilers defenseman Tom Gilbert said. "We had the lead and like I said, we just kind of let them get back in the game. It's tough coming back with them. They play a great trap, they play great defensively and when they're up a goal going into the last period, it's tough to get opportunities from them."

Gaborik assisted on Mark Parrish's insurance goal 57 seconds into the third.

Josh Harding stopped all 13 shots he faced in the third period after Niklas Backstrom made 24 saves through two periods for Minnesota. Backstrom was credited with the victory and improved to 7-0-0 in his career against Edmonton.

Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire did not have any second thoughts about changing goaltenders.

"I said I'm going to switch it and maybe the guys will even work better, because we weren't playing well at that time," Lemaire said.

Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish was not too pleased with the result, considering the Oilers held a 40-25 advantage in shots.

"You get 40 some-odd shots and countless opportunities in front of the net with two goals, and that's almost consistent when we're analyzing what happened after the losses," MacTavish said. "We had lots of opportunities, lots of shots, but at the end of the day, we're not getting it done. We need more efficiency in that area."

Roloson, who played for the Wild from 2001-04, made 19 saves.

Defenseman Martin Skoula opened the scoring just 4:45 into the first period.

The Czech wristed what looked to be a harmless shot on goal, but the puck deflected off blue-liner Allan Rourke and into the net to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.

Stoll scored the first of his two tallies 5:23 into the second period to forge a tie.

After Backstrom attempted to play the puck behind the net, Ales Hemsky stole it and fired a shot on goal. Backstrom made the save, but the rebound popped out to Stoll, who deposited the puck into the net to knot it at 1-1.

Stoll tallied again on a shorthanded breakaway, sliding the puck between Backstrom's legs at 11:55 to give the Wild a 2-1 advantage. It was Stoll's third goal of the season.

"The crowd got going, and that's when I found out I scored," said Stoll, who was knocked to the ice after he tallied. "It's a break that I needed, and you work for those, and I gotta keep working for them."