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Hemsky lifts Oilers to seventh straight home win

Mar 3, 2008 - 5:15 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Ales Hemsky and Mathieu Garon helped keep the Edmonton Oilers rolling at Rexall Place.

Hemsky scored the lone goal in the shootout and Garon turned aside all three shooters he faced as the Oilers recorded their fourth consecutive victory with a 4-3 triumph over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night.

"Finally we got some breaks," Hemsky said, "It wasn't the best game from us but we battled hard and scored a couple of goals and it was a good win for us."

Hemsky also notched a power-play tally in regulation and rookie Andrew Cogliano added a goal and an assist for Edmonton, which has won seven straight contests at home.

"I'm not sure what it is but we'll take it," defenseman Steve Staios said of the streak. "We didn't play the game that we wanted to at home tonight and we recognize that but it's two points nonetheless and we'll get back to work again tomorrow. We're finding ways to win so that's a great sign."

"It's big for the team. It's good for our confidence and it feels like we are finally making progress," Cogliano added. "Hopefully we can get one more win and sweep this home stand and then keep it going on the road."

It was the Oilers' 14th win in a shootout, extending their NHL record.

After both teams failed to score in the first two rounds, Hemsky tallied his league-leading sixth shootout goal by wristing his attempt off the goalpost and in.

Garon, who made 35 saves, then denied Gilbert Brule to preserve the victory. He has stopped 32 of 34 shots in shootouts this season.

"A shootout could go either way so maybe we lost a point but maybe we ran away with one too," Columbus goaltender Pascal Leclaire said. "They have some good shooters and he made a good shot but Mathieu (Garon) made some good saves too; it could have gone either way."

Jason Chimera, who tallied the overtime goal in Friday's 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks, gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 edge with 9:34 remaining the third period. He took a centering feed from Nikolai Zherdev and stuffed it past Garon.

But the lead would not last long as Hemsky and defenseman Steve Staios scored just 20 seconds apart.

Just seven ticks after getting a man advantage, Hemsky unleashed a wrist shot past Pascal Leclaire from the right faceoff circle to tie the contest.

Staios then gave the Oilers a 3-2 edge when his shot from the left point bounced off Blue Jackets center Manny Malhotra's stick and lobbed over Leclaire into the top corner of the net with 7:49 left in regulation.

"We've had a few for those funky goals go in lately but (Hemsky) made a great shot on the power play," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "The disappointing part for us was that we had the lead in the third period and we needed to do a better job.

"We took a penalty in our own zone that was really unnecessary and those are the errors that you make that end up costing you two points."

Columbus responded with 2:39 remaining as blue-liner Dick Tarnstrom lifted a wrist shot from the slot past a sprawling Garon.

All-Star Rick Nash thought he had given the Blue Jackets an early lead in the first period, but his goal was quickly disallowed because he had kicked the puck past Garon.

Nash's next attempt would stand as Columbus opened the scoring with 3:21 left in the first. The play began with Malhotra barreling into the offensive zone and sliding a pass to Nash, who quickly fired a low blast off the far goalpost and into the net.

Edmonton evened the score just 23 seconds later when Cogliano, positioned in front of the net, redirected rookie Sam Gagner's shot past Leclaire.

"Sam made a great pass, I was just going across the net, put my stick down and redirected it off into the net but it was a good heads up pass by him," Cogliano said.