twice

Smyth scores twice in Oilers 4 2 win over Blues

Post on: 2011-11-02 By: admin

Smyth scored a pair of goals as the Edmonton Oilers won their fifth game in
a row, beating the St. Louis Blues 4-2 on Sunday night.
Shawn Horcoff(notes) and Jordan Eberle(notes) also scored for the Oilers (7-2-2), who
improved to 6-1-1 at home and moved back into first place in the Western
Conference with the win.
“It’s a lot of fun playing for this team right now,” Smyth said. “The
excitement, the energy from day to day, the creativity that the young kids
bring, it’s all awesome. We just want to keep going. We have some momentum and
we have to make sure we keep it going in the right direction.”
St. Louis Blues goalie Jarosla…
Edmonton Oilers ' Tom Gilb…
Edmonton Oilers ' Ryan Smy…
Edmonton Oilers ' Taylor H…
St. Louis Blues ' Evgeny G…
Edmonton Oilers ' Ryan Smy…
Edmonton Oilers ' Ryan Smy…
Edmonton Oilers ' Shawn Ho…
Edmonton Oilers ' Jordan E…
Edmonton Oilers ' Taylor H…
Drafted by the Oilers sixth overall in the 1994 draft, Smyth was the face of
the team for about a decade before leaving Edmonton in a shocking deadline deal
with the New York Islanders in 2007.
The Alberta native returned in the offseason after requesting a trade from
Los Angeles to Edmonton and is tied for second in team scoring with five goals
and five assists in 11 games.
Oilers coach Tom Renney said Smyth has been everything they hoped for and
more in his second stint in Edmonton.
“He’s such a good leader. He’s just an Oiler,” he said. “I’m very proud
of the fact that it means so much for him to be here. He really tries to lead by
example and say the right thing and play the right way.
“He’s a heart and soul guy,” Renny said. “You need your young guys to see
what that looks like and feels like and what it means to a person if we are
going to win a Stanley Cup here.”
Davis Backes and Alex Pietrangelo(notes) responded for the Blues (5-6-0), who have
lost two in a row on the heels of a three-game winning streak.
“This is a game we really wanted to get before we have a long break,” said
Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk(notes). “They came out hard and played a great game
and we couldn’t capitalize on our chances. The feeling in the locker room is
that this game is on us, not on our goalie. We hung him out to dry tonight.”
The Oilers (7-2-2) struck first 5:30 in as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins(notes) made a
perfect pass to a streaking Horcoff, who shoveled a power-play goal past Blues
starter Jaroslav Halak(notes).
Edmonton had a chance to add to its lead with seven minutes remaining when
Taylor Hall(notes) went on a short-handed breakaway, but Halak closed the five-hole in
time to deny him.
Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin(notes) made a pair of saves with Chris Stewart(notes) in
close in the last seconds of the first to keep it 1-0.
St. Louis (5-6-0) tied it four minutes into the second period on a nice play
by Backes as he used Jeff Petry(notes) as a screen and fired a hard shot under the bar
to beat Khabibulin.
Edmonton regained its lead three minutes later. Smyth snapped up deflected a
point shot by Alex Plante(notes) and stuffed the puck under the pads of a sprawling
Halak.
The Oilers went down a player midway through the second period when Eric
Belanger(notes) was taken to the dressing room after being slammed headfirst into the
boards by Vladimir Sobotka(notes). He returned for the third period.
Edmonton went up 3-1 with seven minutes left on a fluke goal: Hall’s pass
hit Eberle’s skate and caromed through Halak’s legs. The goal was reviewed but
the referees ruled no kicking motion was made by Eberle.
The Oilers made it a three-goal game with three minutes to play in the
second as Smyth tucked home the rebound of Tom Gilbert’s(notes) power-play shot for his
second of the game and fifth of the season.
Edmonton continued to pressure the Blues with 16 shots in the second period
and almost added another goal on a 2-on-1 by Eberle and Hall, but Halak made a
stellar kick save on Hall’s shot.
The Blues got back into the game with a power play goal three minutes into
the third as a pair of St. Louis players crashed the net and Pietrangelo batted
the puck past Khabibulin.
After two consecutive last-place finishes, forward Ryan Jones(notes) said it is
nice to see the Oilers at the top of the standings in the West.
“I don’t know how many people outside of this room expected this to
happen,” he said. “But we looked around and saw the character and the
leadership and the skill that we had and knew this was all possible.”
NOTES: Edmonton D Andy Sutton(notes) missed the game because he had an appointment
to see NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan(notes) on Monday to receive a suspension for
an elbow on Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog(notes) on Friday. Petry took his place. …
The Oilers also called up D Alex Plante from Oklahoma City. He replaced Cam
Barker(notes) who was a late scratch with a sore shoulder. … St. Louis came into the
game with the league’s worst power play, scoring just once in its last 28
attempts. The Blues were 1 for 3 Sunday. … It was the first meeting of the
season between the two teams. The Blues won three out of four matches against
Edmonton last season. … Edmonton had given up more than two goals in a game
just once this season. … Oilers F Ales Hemsky(notes) skated with the team on Sunday
and should rejoin the lineup this week following a re-injury of his shoulder.
… The Blues were without D Kent Huskins(notes), out after fracturing a bone in his
left ankle against the Flames.
Updated Oct 31, 12:13 am EDT
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0 users disliked this comment Triple KMon Oct 31, 2011 08:58 am PDT Report Abuse Did everyone see Barrett Jackman's great centering pass from behind his own net to the Oilers forward in front of Halak? But Halak made a good save to bail out Jackman. Not so lucky on the next one though when Jackman fell down right in front of Halak and messed him up when they scored their fourth goal. As long as the Blues keep playing Jackman they will have trouble winning consistently. Scott Melanby said during an intermission that the Blues offense needs to begin from their own goal area. Well, that never happens when Jackman has the puck. Poor Shattenkirk (a great young defenseman) is handicapped now since being paired with Jackman because he needs to stay back to help Barrett since he is unable to advance the puck on his own. Go Blues!
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0 users disliked this comment STLBSun Oct 30, 2011 08:57 pm PDT Report Abuse Stewart's goal was changed to Pietrangelo. Blues were much better to watch in losses last year - always had a bunch of effort. Missing McDonald. Halak had some nice saves. Congrats Edmonton. Go Blues next time!
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3 users disliked this comment HoopieSun Oct 30, 2011 08:30 pm PDT Report Abuse Halak is a mental mess. Get rid of this loser and let Elliot finish out the season.
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4 users disliked this comment purplerockriderSun Oct 30, 2011 06:48 pm PDT Report Abuse the sooner the blues get rid of halak .. the sooner the blues can start winning
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5 users disliked this comment RedWingsSuckSun Oct 30, 2011 06:28 pm PDT Report Abuse o man he kicked that in
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6 users disliked this comment IcedragonSun Oct 30, 2011 04:19 pm PDT Report Abuse The Oilers have been winning with defense huh? Right, because allowing 41 SOG against the Avs is awesome defense. And the fact they've blocked the most shots in the league means the opponents must be spending a lot of time in their zone in order for them to be blocking that many shots. It's all about the goaltending, if the Oilers had great defense they wouldn't be allowing many shots, but when your goaltending is making 30-40 saves a night, obviously that says something more about the goalies than the defense.
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0 users disliked this comment STLBSun Oct 30, 2011 12:15 pm PDT Report Abuse Watched Halak during his only win - away from the action he looked so down and tired. Here's hoping he wakes up and the Blues play well in front of him. Go Halak and Go Blues!
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0 users disliked this comment demandingSun Oct 30, 2011 11:07 am PDT Report Abuse I took the under
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4 users disliked this comment LapierreologistSun Oct 30, 2011 09:37 am PDT Report Abuse Blues win because the Oilers have to lose eventually.
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0 users disliked this comment RedWingsSuckSun Oct 30, 2011 07:24 am PDT Report Abuse halak gets the start tonight.
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0 users disliked this comment RedWingsSuckSun Oct 30, 2011 07:03 am PDT Report Abuse CORRECTION! Brian Elliot is 4-1-0 ,,, not 3-1-0 , he beat san jose on the 15th, canes, philly, shutout van 21st 22nd 26th
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Article original from: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/recap?gid=2011103006