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Oilers honor Anderson, defeat Coyotes

Jan 19, 2009 - 5:44 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- While all the Edmonton Oilers had Glenn Anderson's number on their jersey, it was Dustin Penner that did what No. 9 did best.

Penner netted the game-winner and set up another goal Sunday night, lifting the Oilers to a 6-3 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Sunday.

"These winning goals like the one I had tonight aren't the same as true winning goals," Penner said of his team-leading fifth game-winning goal this season.

"When you get it in the second period like that, it means something different than if you score it in overtime or late. But nonetheless, it was a game-winning goal and a great shift by the five guys on the ice."

Captain Ethan Moreau notched his first career hat trick, Ales Hemsky scored two goals and Dwayne Roloson made 25 saves for Edmonton, which has won four of its last five contests.

"It was a great night," Moreau said. "We really wanted to do our part on Glenn Anderson night and I feel we did that. We did some important things in that game."

"Everyone was going crazy, including the coaches. It was great to see," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said of Moreau's hat trick. "All the fans were anticipating that. It was very appropriate that it was Steve (Staios), who dusted it off to get it over to him for the hat trick. We haven't had an energetic game like that all year, where everyone leaves feeling great about themselves."

Andrew Cogliano had three assists while defensemen Tom Gilbert and Steve Staois each added two for the Oilers, who honored Anderson before the game - raising the Hall of Famer's No. 9 jersey to the rafters at Rexall Place.

Edmonton players wore Anderson's number on the front of their jerseys as well.

But it was Penner that provided the best impression of Anderson, who scored 102 game-winning goals - including 17 in the playoffs- during his legendary career.

"I thought the ceremony was very appropriate for 'Andy'," MacTavish said.

After the Coyotes rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie the contest at 3-3, Penner took a centering pass from Shawn Horcoff and fired a quick shot past Phoenix goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov with 7:59 left in the second period.

Hemsky scored with 98 seconds to play and Moreau added an empty-netter with less than one tick left to seal the victory.

Blue-liner Keith Yandle, Daniel Carcillo and Peter Mueller each had a goal for the Coyotes, who had won four of their previous five games.

"I thought as a team we played pretty well tonight," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "We're playing against a team in a similar situation (in the standings) that we're in. We knew that it was a big night for their organization and their players are going to feed off of that and they played well tonight, but I thought our team played well too."

Playing in his 49th NHL game, Steven Goertzen collected his first career points with two assists. Rookie Kyle Turris also had a pair of assists and Bryzgalov stopped 23 shots for Phoenix, which wrapped up a four-game road trip with a 2-2-0 record.

"We had a chance to really improve in the standings and get six points away from (the Oilers)," Phoenix defenseman Ed Jovanovski said. "Are we happy with (the road trip)? No, it's a .500 trip. We'll take it, but I think we left some points out there."