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Oilers send Islanders to third straight loss

Jan 8, 2008 - 6:17 AM By Chris O'Leary PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- For 40 minutes on Monday night, the Edmonton Oilers played to their full potential. It was more than enough to beat the slumping New York Islanders.

The Oilers used the middle frame of the contest to blow open a stalemate, scoring three goals in a span of 10 minutes en route to a 4-0 victory on Monday at Rexall Place. Oilers goalie Mathieu Garon picked up his third shutout of the season, turning away 35 shots.

After an uneventful first period, the Oilers got to work in the second. At just 1:11, Ales Hemsky took a pass from blueliner Tom Gilbert at center ice and danced through the Islanders defense before putting the puck between the legs of both Brendan Witt and goaltender Rick DiPietro to open the scoring. Joni Pitkanen picked up an assist on the play.

Slightly more than five minutes later at 6:31, Oilers forward Dustin Penner dropped a nice pass between his legs facing the boards to Hemsky, who led the rush into the Islanders' zone.

Hemsky dropped the puck back to a trailing Shawn Horcoff who made a tough deke on DiPietro look easy to double the lead. The goal was the center's 100th career tally. More than the milestone goal, Horcoff was happy to play in a game where his team racked up the score.

"I can't tell you the last time we had (an easy game). They are few and far between," he said. "To win the first two games of a five game homestand, that was big for us and gives us the opportunity to do something special for the last three games. It was a big confidence builder for us."

Marty Reasoner put the Oilers ahead 3-0 at 11:22 when he took a feed from Jarret Stoll and Gilbert and snapped a wrist shot past DiPietro, who completely misread the shot.

A powerplay goal from Stoll on a one-time feed from Horcoff threw salt in the wound late in the third period.

Edmonton played a full 60 minutes of defense, a good thing for a team that's shown a part-time commitment to it for the majority of the season. They also kept the pressure on in the third period, where they've been burned a number of times when they've had the lead this season.

Though they didn't look like themselves, Oilers coach Craig MacTavish was pleased with what he saw.

"I thought we relaxed a little bit and looked more comfortable with the puck, made more plays and got a bit of offense," he said. "It's the first game in a long time that we have been able to relax and I think that in itself is going to make a difference for our team."

After closing out 2007 with victories in five of their last six games, the Islanders have now dropped three in a row, and remain winless in 2008. Isles coach Ted Nolan was left searching for his team's competitive fire.

"It's nothing to do with our goaltending or our lack of goal scoring. It's something to do with the lack of competitiveness. If we don't compete we'll get beat on most nights," he said.

The Islanders were left wondering where they can muster the offense to be competitive.

"I don't have the answer," said DiPietro, who made 29 saves on the night. "I think we've got to continue to get shots at the net, but at the same time we need more traffic (in front). Cause the goalie to be a little bit uncomfortable and drop some rebounds and then get some hardware (on it)."

Mike Comrie, the Islanders' leading scorer with 33 points on the season was entirely ineffective, as the Edmonton fans heckled him relentlessly every time the former Oiler touched the puck.

Comrie left the arena without comment.