Oilers fall to surging Islanders
Last Updated: Monday, November 2, 2009 | 8:06 PM MT
Jenni Dunning, CBC Sports
Brendan Witt claimed his first two-goal game in the NHL and John Tavares scored another goal to give the New York Islanders a 3-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night.
It marked the Isles' fourth straight win.
It was Witt's first multiple-goal game since starting his NHL career with the Washington Capitals in 1995.
Despite the Oilers (7-7-1) pulling goalie Nikolai Khabibulin for the last few minutes of the game, Witt couldn't get the hat trick.
"It would've been nice, but whatever," Witt said. "We want to remind ourselves that we can't get away from what made us successful — it's hard work."
Edmonton (5-4-5) has struggled with road games this season, getting shut out of its last four games before Monday's contest. It has lost five of the last six.
"We sure shoot ourselves in the foot," Oilers coach Pat Quinn said. "In the second period, we abandoned again any principles of defence in the defensive zone. If you check like that, you lose hockey games. That's all there is to it.
"They played like the Harlem Globetrotters for a couple of shifts there, and they're not even a physical team."
Ethan Moreau got an early shot just 10 minutes into the game — scoring first for the Oilers after the puck was knocked in off Islander Radek Martinek's skate.
Tavares got the equalizer soon after, getting a clean shot to the net on a play led by Doug Weight.
Witt claimed the second and third goals for the Isles in the second period.
"The first one kind of caught Khabibulin... I don't think he was ready," Witt said. "The second one, I got fortunate. I think it went off one of their guys and beat him. You never know what happens when you throw the puck at the net."
The Isles' Jean-Francois Jacques got five minutes for fighting Andy Sutton. Jacques was called for instigating in retaliation for Sutton's hard, clean check on Tom Gilbert.
The Oilers have struggled lately with the loss of players due to injuries and sickness.
Defenceman Sheldon Souray sat out Monday's game with a concussion, and is out indefinitely along with Steve Staios.
Centre Mike Comrie and defenceman Lubomir Visnovsky are day-to-day with the flu, and centre Ryan Stone is gone one to two weeks with a knee injury.
