Edmonton Oilers continue to roll with win over Phoenix Coyotes
The Edmonton Oilers continued to roll through the pre-season with an exciting shootout win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night. The Oilers veterans finally came to play, and the club was able to pull out a 4-3 win.
The Oilers rested most of their big name rookies and gave first line centre, Shawn Horcoff, the night off when they took on the Coyotes on Wednesday. Edmonton chose to give Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle a break for the night, but kept Magnus Paajarvi in the
line-up. Meanwhile, in net, the club once again split the start, this time between Martin Gerber and Jeff Deslaurier.
The Coyotes decided to go with a very young line-up, as they continued to test out their rookies for the final two lines. Captain Shane Doan was given the night off, and youngsters Kyle Turris, Mikkel Boedker, Viktor Tikhonov and Oliver Ekman-Larsson were all
given the start. In nets, Veznia-nominated goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov got the full 60 minutes.
The scoring started late in the first period when the Coyotes summer addition Lee Stempniak registered a marker with the help coming from David Schlemko and Taylor Pyatt.
Phoenix kept the pressure on and Turris was able to fire another wrist shot past the Edmonton keeper. Turris got help from Petr Prucha and Scottie Upshall. Currently, Turris is fighting for the final centre position. The former first round pick finally looks
as though he will crack the line-up out of camp.
The Oilers were able to get on the board four minutes before the period ended, with Sam Gagner sliding a backhand past Bryzgalov. Ladislav Smid and Gilbert Brule picked up the assists on the goal. The marker cut the Coyotes lead to 2-1 heading into the first
intermission.
Three minutes into second, American Hockey League standout Alexandre Giroux put a well-placed wrist shot past Bryzgalov, after receiving a pass from Liam Reddox. The goal knotted the game up at two heading into the second intermission.
After the break the Oilers kept the pressure on with Colin McDonald tipping in an Alex Plante shot, to give them their first lead of the game.
However, the Coyotes’ Upshall scored a brilliant breakaway goal with less than two minutes to go in the game. Upshall got a wonderful break-out pass from Purcha and while falling, flicked the puck past Gerber.
Nothing could be decided in overtime and the two sides were forced into a shootout. Dustin Penner shot third and made no mistake, slotting one home for his side. Boedker was unable to beat the Edmonton goalie and Alex Hemsky potted the shootout winner.
With the win, the Oilers improved to 4-0 in exhibition play.
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