Oilers lose 3rd straight
Last Updated: Sunday, November 15, 2009 | 9:30 PM ET
By Justin Piercy, CBC Sports
Vyacheslav Kozlov's one-time shot ripped past the glove of Edmonton's Nikolai Khabibulin and broke a tie with eight minutes to go to push his Thrashers to a 3-2 win on Sunday over the Oilers in Atlanta.
Kozlov paced his club with the winning goal — his first in 16 games this season — and added an assist as Atlanta notched its fourth straight win and improved to 10-6-1.
"Obviously it was a slow start for me," Kozlov said. "Hopefully, I will pick it up. I tried to stay calm and just work hard. It feels good."
Thrashers goalie Johan Hedberg made 34 saves and said he was encouraged by Kozlov's goal.
"We need him to be a part of our team," Hedberg said. "For him to get his first goal was big for him."
The Oilers (8-10-2) had goals from Shawn Horcoff and Dustin Penner but dropped their third straight game.
"We are a team that finds a way not to do the right thing," Oilers coach Pat Quinn said. "We missed our assignments today and instead of walking away with something to work with, we walk away with nothing but maybe a moral victory."
The Thrashers came into the contest with the NHL's fifth-ranked power play and it was the special teams that got the job done for the team in the first period.
Zach Bogosian's marker opened the scoring at 4:37 of the first period off a one-timer from Ilya Kovalchuk. The shot beat Khabibulin low on his blocker side for Bogosian's eighth goal of the season.
The Oilers got their chances to tie things up with a three straight power-play opportunities.
Andrew Cogliano used his speed to draw one in the dying minutes of the first when he gained the zone with the puck and skated to the left faceoff circle before cutting hard into the slot.
In his attempt to thwart the Oilers speedster, Atlanta defenceman Tobias Enstrom was whistled for putting a loose hand on Cogliano and was sent to the box for the Thrashers' third penalty of the period.
Horcoff's tip ties it
The Atlanta penalty kill was flawless on the day, but the Oilers rebounded from a poor first period by lighting the lamp 39 seconds into the second. A Steve Staios shot from the point was deflected perfectly by Horcoff, who was parked in front of Thrashers goaltender Johan Hedberg.
At the other end of the ice, Khabibulin kept his squad in it with a pair of dazzling saves in the middle of the second on his way to a 30-save performance.
A glove save on a slapshot from Kozlov was followed up by another flash of the leather when he robbed Todd White's point-blank blast.
The Russian goalie's calming influence in the face of the Thrashers' offensive flurry paid off when the Oilers took the lead with less than five minutes to go in the period off a pretty 2-on-1 play by Penner and Cogliano.
Cogliano gained the zone, waited out the Atlanta defenceman who dived to block the pass, tiptoed around the sprawled defender and launched the puck to Penner, who rifled it past Hedberg for his 12th goal of the year.
Souray's return a rough one
The game marked the return of Sheldon Souray — who returned from a concussion he suffered in a game against Calgary on Oct. 8. It wasn't all smooth sailing for the veteran defenceman in Atlanta. With less than a minute to go, the Oilers were pinching in the Thrashers' zone, but Souray had the puck lifted from him on the blue-line, which led to a goal by Maxim Afinogenov.
After picking Souray's pocket, Rich Peverley launched a stretch pass to Afinogenov, who deked Khabibulin and scored on a backhander with 22 seconds to go in the period and sent Edmonton to the dressing room a little deflated after losing their first lead of the game.
Kozlov netted the winning one-timer from White with eight minutes to go and the Thrashers endured a late flurry by the Oilers to seal their 10th win of the year.
With files from The Associated Press
