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Roloson, Oilers stifle Canucks

Dec 14, 2008 - 7:00 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- The rest obviously served Dwayne Roloson well.

Playing for the first time in a week, Roloson turned aside all 23 shots he faced as the Edmonton Oilers recorded a 3-0 triumph over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday in a battle of Northwest Division rivals.

Dustin Penner, Ales Hemsky and Robert Nilsson scored for Edmonton, which improved to 4-1-0 in its last five games.

Roloson made four saves in the first period, 10 in the second and nine in the third en route to his first shutout of the season and 23rd career. The 39-year-old last played on December 6, when he turned aside 41 shots in a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks.

"Our guys did a great job out there defensively," Roloson said. "I don't even know how many shots they had in the first period, but it only seemed like one or two.

"We just stuck to our game plan and kept them to the outside. I could see most of the shots. We just did all the little things you need to do to win a game."

Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish was pleased with the performance of the entire team.

"It was the first game all year where I can say that everybody played well," he said. "It was the first real complete 60-minute game we have played all year.

"Normally, there have been patches of the game where there are some poor performances, but everybody did their job tonight. That was the first sign of a complete game by everyone this year."

Curtis Sanford stopped 26 shots for Vancouver, which finished its seven-game road trip with a 2-4-1 record.

Penner opened the scoring just 49 seconds into the contest, fending off defenseman Willie Mitchell and backhanding the puck past Sanford for his eighth goal of the season.

"I really don't have one positive thing to say about this game," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "We got outplayed, we got out-everythinged in all areas. They deserved to win hands down, and they did."

"We didn't have a very good start or a very good finish," Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa added.

Hemsky doubled the advantage with 93 seconds remaining in the second period, when he wristed a shot from the right circle past Sanford and inside the right goalpost for his 10th tally.

While the Oilers were faring well, Vigneault had a different view.

"We had two chances after 40 minutes - that's quite impressive," Vigneault said sarcastically. "That tells you a lot about our game tonight."

After missing four games with a shoulder injury, Nilsson gave the Oilers a three-goal bulge just 2:21 into the third.

With Vancouver pressing to halve the deficit, Ryan Kesler's backhand pass from behind the net caromed off a skate of an Oiler and out toward center ice. Nilsson - who was activated from injured reserve earlier in the day - came off the bench, skated in on Sanford and slipped it between his pads to cap the scoring.

"(Nilsson) was under the impression we were still on the power play," MacTavish said. "It was one of those Freudian slips where it looks like a stroke of genius, but it could have had a different result. We got a break there."