Sam Gagner helps Edmonton Oilers defeat the Colorado Avalanche 5-1
In a battle between the two worst teams of the Western Conference, Sam Gagner scored a goal and dished out two assists, as the Edmonton Oilers thrashed the Colorado Avalanche 5-1 on Saturday night.
Shawn Horcoff and Alexandre Giroux both tallied goals for the Oilers, who extended their winning streak to three games. Andrew Cogliano and Ryan Jones each also notched a goal for Edmonton, who played their first contest without Taylor Hall, who is out with
a left ankle sprain.
Goaltender Devan Dubnyk turned aside 33-of-34 shots for the victors. Ryan O'Reilly posted the lone goal for Colorado, who have lost five games in a row. With this defeat, the Avalanche move into 14th spot in the Western Conference with 60 points.
The Avalanche have won just once in their previous 16 games. Brian Elliott was benched in the middle stanza after allowing four goals on 19 shots. Peter Budaj replaced him, who then stopped 11 shots in relief.
Colorado defenceman Adam Foote, who returned after missing 11 contests due to a leg injury, said after the game, “We have to keep working hard. We have to keep fighting until it changes. It is fine here in this room. When things are going well it's easy.
When it's not, it's easy to criticise and easy to get down."
The Oilers got the scoring started in the fifth minute of the first frame when Cogliano passed to Gagner, who tapped the puck past the Colorado net-minder on the power-play.
With less than 11 minutes remaining in the opening period, Edmonton doubled their advantage on the power-play, when Jones whacked in a rebound off Gagner’s shot.
"We just kept it simple and got some good bounces. We were efficient and we took advantage of their mistakes." Cogliano said of the power-play, which was 2-for-2.
In the first minute of the middle stanza, the Oilers extended their lead to 3-0 when Horcoff notched his ninth goal of the season. The Oilers made it a 4-0 game in the ninth minute of the second period when Giroux put the puck past Elliott for his first
goal of the season.
Colorado finally found the back of the net late in the middle frame when O'Reilly jammed the puck in for his sixth goal of the season. Just 29 seconds into the final period, Edmonton got a short-handed goal when Liam Reddox led a 2-on-1 charge and sent the
puck to Cogliano, who tucked it into the wide open net.
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