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Penner, Moreau lead shorthanded Oilers past Blackhawks

Feb 7, 2008 - 7:01 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- The Edmonton Oilers are doing just fine without Shawn Horcoff.

Dustin Penner and Ethan Moreau scored 34 seconds apart during a three-goal second period as the Oilers posted a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.

Edmonton, which lost its leading scorer and lone All-Star for the season to a torn labrum on Monday, has outscored its opponents, 9-1, in its last two games - both wins.

The Oilers obviously are not feeling the affects of the loss of Horcoff just yet as Jarret Stoll and defenseman Joni Pitkanen also tallies and Mathieu Garon stopped 40 shots.

"With (Horcoff) out, everybody has to step up and collectively score," Stoll said. "We have to have everybody in this room going and scoring or we know what our fate will be."

Edmonton erased a 1-0 deficit with three goals in span of less than 6 1/2 minutes during the second period.

"We've played really hard the last three games," Moreau said. "It's a good lesson that the harder we play and (with) more structure, the more offense (is generated). We just played a tough, gritty game, and it's a pretty good equation we are starting to figure out."

Stoll began the outburst at 2:16 with a power-play goal and Penner snapped the tie with a backhander off a beautiful pass from rookie Sam Gagner during a man advantage at 8:10.

"We've been working on (the power play) for the past week, trying different looks and different personnel," Penner said. "We seem to have found what we needed. The guys are really starting to click."

Moreau made it 3-1 on a nearly identical play moments later. Defenseman Ladislav Smid sent a cross-ice pass to Moreau, who beat goaltender Patrick Lalime from the right side with at 11:16 remaining.

Pitkanen stretched the lead to 4-1 with a slap shot from the left faceoff circle that found the top left corner of the net just 51 seconds into the third.

Chicago opened the scoring as Patrick Sharp netted a power-play goal with just 43 seconds left in the first period.

"You'd think we'd be fine (having scored first), but it's a turn of events," Chicago defenseman James Wisniewski said. "They get a power-play goal and they're right back in it.

"That's the kind of thing you try not to do, is give up power plays. It happened and we've got to move on and look to our next game against the (Calgary) Flames (on Thursday)."

Lalime stopped 23 shots for Chicago, which has lost five straight and fell to 1-1-1 on its seven-game road trip.

Blackhawks coach Denis Savard believed the combination of Garon and his team's 1-for-9 effort with the man advantage killed its chances.

"Garon played a good game for them," Savard said. "We should have had a lot more than one goal, no question. The first period was probably the greatest period we've played since the All-Star break, but we got in some penalty trouble. You've got to stay out of the penalty box, and 1-for-9 isn't good enough. You've got to get more than that."