Andrew Cogliano, left, and Denis Grebeshkov squeeze Frederik Modin (33) off the loose puck in Tuesday's 7-2 Oilers triumph. (Jay LaPrete/Associated Press)The offence that went missing in Michigan? The Edmonton Oilers found it in Ohio.
Shawn Horcoff had one goal and two assists as the Oilers shellacked the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-2 before a crowd of 12,689 at the Nationwide Arena on Tuesday night.
Edmonton led 3-0 in the second period, and sealed it with three goals in the final eight minutes.
"I don't really think the score was indicative of how close the game was," Horcoff said. "I thought we showed a lot of good character to get that fifth goal.
"We kind of gave ourselves some breathing room."
Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert, Sheldon Souray and Lubomir Visnovsky each had one goal and one assist.
Dustin Penner scored in his return from a two-game benching, and Marc Pouliot had Edmonton's other goal.
"It was tough to watch the last two games," Penner said of being benched by Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish for a lack of commitment. "We had a pretty good game."
Ales Hemsky had three assists and Sam Gagner two assists as the Oilers (9-8-2) halted three-game losing skid.
"We're letting in too many goals — bottom line," Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock said.
Not to be overlooked in the offensive explosion was a solid performance from Oilers netminder Dwayne Roloson, who stopped 37 of 39 shots.
"They like to drive the net hard and just throw things from bad angles and go for rebounds," he said.
"He was really on top of his game," MacTavish said. "When your goalie outplays the other guy, it is normally a good indication of the result."
Roloson faced 41 shots in Monday's 4-0 loss at Detroit, his third setback in as many starts.
"We had to rebound from the game last night," Souray said. "We didn't generate much offensively."
The Oilers were outshot 15-4 in the first period but Souray opened the scoring on their first shot, stepping into Hemsky's soft pass and slapping the puck by a screened Pascal Leclaire for his sixth goal of the season less than six minutes in.
"It was a good pass from Hemmer," Souray said. "It was just a matter of hitting the net."
Souray possesses one of the hardest shots in the NHL and, knowing that, faked a slapshot to back up the defence before sliding a pass to Cogliano, who tapped the puck inside the right post with 6:46 left in the period.
It was Cogliano's fourth goal and came on Edmonton's fourth shot.
'It was a bit of a wild one'
Pouliot put the Oilers ahead 3-0 on their third shot of the second period, easily converting Cogliano's pass through the crease for his first tally at 12:49.
Edmonton had been outshot 11-2 to that point.
"It was a bit of a wild one," MacTavish said.
Columbus finally solved Roloson on its 29th shot of the contest, when Kristian Huselius stickhandled deftly into the offensive zone and rifled a shot through traffic for his seventh with 1:57 left in the period.
It remained 3-1 until Gilbert whacked in a rebound with Penner distracting Leclaire in the crease.
It was Gilbert's second goal of the season, and Edmonton's second in as many power-play opportunities.
"We lost the special teams game," Hitchcock said. "You cannot live on the negative play of our special teams and win."
Rick Nash replied for the Blue Jackets with his ninth goal on a power play at 9:59, but Penner emerged from a crowd at the side boards with the puck and beat Leclaire between the pads for his fourth with 7:54 remaining.
Horcoff's fifth on a one-timer from the left circle made it 6-2 at the 14:38 mark, and Visnovksky completed the carnage 31 seconds later with his third.
Leclaire surrendered seven goals on 19 shots as the Blue Jackets (8-8-3) lost for the third time in their last four games.
Wth files from the Canadian Press
