Oilers play spoiler, defeat Avalanche
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Edmonton Oilers.Playing the role of spoiler, the Edmonton Oilers handed the Colorado Avalanche a damaging 4-1 loss at Pepsi Center on Monday.
Brandon Davidson and Justin Schultz scored to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead before Nikita Nikitin and Taylor Hall scored empty-net goals. Goalie Richard Bachman, who played two years at Colorado College, made 28 saves for his second consecutive win.
The loss left the Avalanche (35-29-12) eight points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference with six games remaining, the next three on the road.
The Oilers (23-40-13) have won three games in a row.
Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov went to the bench for a sixth skater with 2:20 to play in regulation. Nikitin scored his empty-net goal with 2:07 remaining and Hall followed 32 seconds later.
The Oilers took their 2-1 lead at 15:28 of the second period on a goal by Schultz. Teddy Purcell shot the puck into the Avalanche end with Schultz and Colorado defenseman Nate Guenin in pursuit. Schultz overtook Guenin, corralled the puck and cut to the net. He flipped the puck over Varlamov's right pad for his sixth goal of the season.
The goal came on the Oilers' first shot on goal in about 10 minutes.
The Avalanche had one shot on the only power play of the game. It came after Rob Klinkhammer was penalized for hooking Jordan Caron at 6:40.
Davidson, a rookie playing in his sixth NHL game, gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead with his first goal at 4:49 of the opening period. Anton Lander had the puck along the goal line to the left of Varlamov when he passed to Davidson driving down left wing for a shot into a half-open net.
Davidson, 23, was Edmonton's sixth-round pick (No. 162) in the 2010 NHL Draft. He played in his second game since being recalled Thursday from the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League, where he had one goal and two assists in 14 games.
The Avalanche tied the game at 13:18 on Ryan O'Reilly's 15th goal of the season. Alex Tanguay took a shot from near the top of the right circle; O'Reilly drove to the net and put in the rebound after Bachman made a save with his right pad.
O'Reilly has five goals and 12 assists in an eight-game scoring streak, the longest of his NHL career.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
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31/03/2015 - 05:30
