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Smyth, Avalanche end three-game slide, beat Oilers

Nov 23, 2007 - 6:17 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- After leaving Edmonton in tears nearly 21 months ago, Ryan Smyth had a reason to smile when he stepped off the ice on Thursday.

Smyth had an assist and Marek Svatos scored the game-winning goal as the Colorado Avalanche edged the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2, at the Rexall Palace.

Defenseman Karlis Skrastins and Milan Hejduk also tallied for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing skid.

Skrastins opened the scoring at 6:43 of the first period. After taking a pass from Ryan Smyth, Skrastins snapped a shot between the pads of Oilers goaltender Mathieu Garon to give the Avalanche a 1-0 edge.

"It was a lucky play," Smyth said of the assist. "I got it off the wall, chipped it out and (Skrastins) made a shot."

After spending 11-plus seasons with Edmonton, it was Smyth's first point against his former team in three tries.

"Obviously, it's nice to get points, but the bottom line is the win," Smyth said.

The Oilers tied the game at 1-1 late in the opening session on the power play. With Colorado captain Joe Sakic in the penalty box for holding, Edmonton's special teams need just seven seconds to get the job done.

Shawn Horcoff won the ensuing faceoff and Ales Hemsky made a return pass to Horcoff, who fired a shot into the bottom right corner at 16:31.

"When you handle the (defensive) pressure, you're going to get a pretty good chance," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "After that we didn't get a lot of chances on the power play."

The Avalanche took the lead back at 6:35 of the second period when blue-liner John Michael Liles' shot from the point deflected off the skate of Milan Hedjuk and in.

Edmonton, however, took just 65 seconds to respond. Hemsky took a pass from Horcoff and fired a one-timer from the right circle past Colorado netminder Peter Budaj to tie the score at 2-2.

The Avalanche jumped back in front at 11:33 when Marek Svatos scored his ninth tally of the season.

Svatos caught a rebound off of Garon that went off of his skate.

He was able to get his stick on the puck just as it crossed the line. The goal went to review and was counted, giving Colorado a 32 lead.

"I hit the puck with my skate and I felt that I tipped it in," Svatos said. "You never know, you hope the results are going to be from upstairs."

"When I saw him kick it, I knew it was going to go (to review)," Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said of Svatos' goal. "He said he hit it before it went in. He's got those quick hands around the net. Those are the kinds of goals he scores."

Garon was the busier of the two goalies, stopping 28 of the 31 shots he faced, while Budaj needed just 14 saves to secure the victory.