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Souray, Oilers edge reeling Coyotes

Feb 17, 2009 - 6:14 AM GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- All-Star defenseman Sheldon Souray snapped a tie early in the third period as the Edmonton Oilers handed the Phoenix Coyotes their sixth straight home defeat with a 3-1 triumph on Monday.

Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff recorded a goal and an assist apiece, defenseman Tom Gilbert notched two assists and Dwayne Roloson finished with 28 saves for Edmonton, which posted its third straight victory.

"If we can go on a four- or five-game winning streak, we can get some breathing room and create a little margin of error for yourself," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "It would be beneficial psychologically for the players to not play under excruciating pressure every night."

"We just played a great road game," Hemsky said. "(Roloson) was unbelievable. He gave us the chance to win the game."

Defenseman Ed Jovanovski netted a power-play goal and Mikael Tellqvist turned aside 26 shots for Phoenix, which fell to 1-9-0 since the All-Star break.

"Telly (Tellqvist) did a great job. He did everything we asked him to do," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "He hadn't played in a long time, but he did an admirable job.

The Coyotes have been outscored, 30-14, during their six-game home losing streak.

"You count on getting good goals in big situations, and we didn't get it - and that was the difference in the hockey game," Gretzky said. "We had played a pretty good hockey game, but all of a sudden we were down, 2-1. We had a couple of power plays to get back in it, but we didn't capitalize."

"We let their power play score and then we got some chances in the third and our power play didn't do it," captain Shane Doan said. "We didn't bury our chances (and) when it came down to us needing to score, we didn't. The urgency was there we just didn't care."

With the game tied at 1-1 at 5:33 of the third period, Souray's blast from just inside the blue line beat a thoroughly screened Tellqvist for his 15th goal of the season.

Horcoff added an empty-net goal with 24 seconds remaining to seal the win.

Hemsky opened the scoring with 4:17 remaining in the second period. The 25-year-old cleaned up a rebound on the doorstep and tapped the puck past Tellqvist for his 18th goal of the season.

"It was kind of lucky," Hemsky said. "I just took it to the net and I got the rebound. I was just lucky, but I will take it.

Jovanovski leveled the contest with three seconds remaining in the second period after deflecting Doan's shot past Roloson for his fifth goal of the campaign.

"(Roloson) played a great game and made some good chances," MacTavish said. "I thought we were starting to take the game after we took the 1-0 lead in the second, but then we took three consecutive penalties and that got them back in the game. Then we did what we needed to, but it was another very tight game."