Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff negated Trevor Linden's goal by scoring in the shootout as the Edmonton Oilers pulled out a 5-4 victory over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.
Linden was Vancouver's second skater of the shootout and outguessed Mathieu Garon, but Hemsky and Horcoff replied with goals on Roberto Luongo at the other end.
Tom Gilbert (77) scores on Roberto Luongo in Tuesday's 5-4 Oilers win.
(John Ulan/Canadian Press)
"It was a huge win for us," Horcoff said.
Edmonton had lost eight of its previous 11 meetings with Vancouver, including four in a row at Rexall Place.
"I thought tonight was, by far, our best team effort of the season," Horcoff said. "We just wouldn't be denied."
Horcoff and Tom Gilbert provided one goal and one assist apiece in regulation, while Marty Reasoner and Dustin Penner rounded out the scoring for the the Oilers (9-12-1), who halted a two-game losing skid.
Hemsky contributed two assists, and Garon made 20 saves in 65 minutes.
More importantly, Edmonton counted three power-play goals after managing just seven in 20 games.
"It was a huge relief for us," Horcoff said. "We have been moving it pretty well.
"But we obviously weren't getting the results. We worked very hard on it in practice and were finally able to do it tonight."
"I was a little dumbfounded by it," Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish said. "We had terrific execution.
"But we have seen that level of execution before and never had the offence to go along with it. Hopefully, that's a sign that things have turned around there."
Alexander Edler and Markus Naslund each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks (10-8-2), who have earned at least one point in seven straight games.
Alex Burrows, on a breakaway, and Brad Isbister had the other goals.
"I don't think we deserved any points tonight, the way we played," Luongo said. "We will take the point and run."
Despite the setback, Vancouver is 5-1-2 in the month of November.
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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