LDN - Sports

Oilers finally find way to beat Coyotes

[December 22, 2016] GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan always wants his team to start strong, but it was especially important on Wednesday in Arizona. The Coyotes were 21-0-4 against the Oilers in the teams' last 25 meetings and Coyotes goalie Mike Smith owned a 15-1-1 lifetime record against Edmonton.

"We're going to have to start well and find ways to beat him with the old cliches of traffic and volume shooting and screens and deflections. It's nothing that this group hasn't talked about the 20 other times we've played him."

Mark Letestu and Milan Lucic heeded their coach's call by scoring first-period goals, the Oilers got two goals from their fourth line and Cam Talbot made 34 saves as Edmonton beat Arizona 3-2 at Gila River Arena to snap the longest points streak in the NHL since Philadelphia went 32 straight against the Los Angeles Kings from Oct. 22, 1974 to Feb 5, 1983.

"This has been a really tough building for us to come away with points so to get two is satisfying," Letestu said of a game that featured 81 penalty minutes. "Whether it was the penalties or just turnovers, we let them hang around the game and it's something we have to learn from, but two points here, we'll take it."

Arizona got goals from Martin Hanzal and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and 19 saves from Mike Smith, but dropped its third straight game while playing its 20th one-goal game of the season.

"It's tough when you get down two goals and it's tough to battle back from that," Ekman-Larsson said. "They're a high-skilled team. I thought they did a lot of good things and we didn't."

Edmonton took a 1-0 lead at 8:13 of the first period when Coyotes defenseman Alex Goligoski turned the puck over in the neutral zone, leading to some sustained Oilers pressure in Arizona's zone. Right winger Zack Kassian found Letestu at the right hash mark and Letestu's one-timer slid under goalie Mike Smith's pad. The Coyotes argued that left winger Matt Hendricks was in the crease and interfering with Smith's stick, but the goal was allowed.

"After I saw the play I didn't sell it well enough," Smith said. "If I had just come off my post a little bit and bumped into him, then they would have called it back. Because I didn't react like a fish out of water they couldn't really do anything to overturn it."

Edmonton widened its lead to 2-0 on a power play with Arizona defenseman Jakob Chychrun in the penalty box for tripping. Letestu tried to pass the puck to Milan Lucic at the left post, but the puck caromed off Lucic's skate and into the net at 15:07 of the first period for Lucic's 10th goal of the season.

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Hendricks made it 3-0 Edmonton on a fortunate bounce for his first goal of the season at 2:16 of the second period. Letetsu's shot bounced off the end boards and onto Hendricks' stick at the far post. His high shot beat Smith and defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who tried to kick his leg out in the way of the shot, giving Edmonton's fourth line its second goal of the night.

"I'd like to say it's all the saucer passes and toe drags but it's definitely simplicity with us," Hendricks said.

Arizona got one back on a power play with Edmonton's Benoit Pouliot in the box for hooking. Radim Vrbata's slap shot from the left circle caromed off an Oilers stick and then center Martin Hanzal deflected it again for his seventh goal of the season and Vrbata's team-leading 21st point at 11:19 of the second period.

Ekman-Larsson banged in a rebound during a goal-mouth scramble with seven seconds remaining to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Coyotes ran out of time.

NOTES: Coyotes rookie LW Brendan Perlini was back in the lineup on Wednesday in place of recently acquired waiver claim, Josh Jooris. Perlini, the team's 2014 first-round pick, has two goals in eight games. ... Oilers RW Jesse Puljujarvi was also back in the lineup after a two-game absence as a healthy scratch. Puljujarvi has played just two of the last six games while dealing with what coach Todd McLellan termed a minor injury. ... Puljujarvi drew back into the lineup for RW Tyler Pitlick, who left the team Tuesday to fly back to Edmonton with a leg injury suffered Monday in St Louis. Pitlick was sent crashing into the boards after colliding with the Blues' Jori Lehtera. After trying to get up, Pitlick collapsed to the ice and was not able to put any weight on his leg, per the Edmonton Sun, which did not specify which leg.

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