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Oilers look to avoid fourth straight loss

Jan 20, 2008 - 2:02 PM Edmonton (21-23-5) at Atlanta (23-23-3) 2:00 pm EST

ATLANTA (Ticker) - A pair of teams coming off embarrassing losses meet Sunday when the Edmonton Oilers visit the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Oilers surrendered a third-period hat trick to Eric Staal en route to a 7-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.

Andrew Cogliano scored a goal and set up another and fellow rookie Sam Gagner had two assists for Edmonton, which has surrendered 15 goals in losing its last three games.

Shawn Horcoff, who leads the Oilers with 21 goals and 47 points, had his six-game point streak snapped.

The Thrashers yielded hat tricks to Drew Stafford and Derek Roy as they suffered a 10-1 setback to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. It marked the worst defensive performance in team history.

All-Star Ilya Kovalchuk was held off the scoresheet for the second straight game, marking the second time this season he did not have a point in back-to-back games. The first time was when the club was blanked in consecutive games on November 23 and 24, 2007, to the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Kovalchuk, who leads the NHL with 37 goals, has not been held pointless in three straight contests since December 26-30, 2006.