Oilers too much for Avalanche, 4-1

[January 29, 2013]  EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves and the Edmonton Oilers scored all of their goals on the power play to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 on Monday.

Ales Hemsky, Jordan Eberle, Shawn Horcoff and Nail Yakupov, into an empty net, scored on the man advantage for the Oilers.

Taylor Hall and Sam Gagner each picked up two assists for Edmonton, which got a strong start to a game after falling behind in each of its four previous outings.

P.A. Parenteau scored for the Avalanche, who have lost two in a row to start a four-game road trip.

Edmonton opened the scoring at 15:23 of the first. Hemsky swooped in and swatted a puck past Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov during a scramble in front of the net.

The Oilers added another power-play goal at 18:05 of the first as Eberle picked the top corner on a shot from the top of the circle for his third of the season.

Edmonton had 14 shots in the first while Colorado only managed three on Dubnyk.

The Oilers took a three-goal lead at 9:40 of the second period on yet another man-advantage opportunity as Hall's shot hit Horcoff's skate in front and squeaked past Varlamov.

Colorado had a great scoring chance a minute later as Jamie McGinn had Dubnyk beat, but rang a shot off the post.

Persistent pressure by the Avalanche in the third paid off at 7:43 as Parenteau fired a shot under Dubnyk's pads at the side of the net to make it 3-1.

Yakupov scored his third of the season on yet another power play with 33 seconds left and Varlamov on the Colorado bench for an extra attacker.

Varlamov finished with 23 saves.

NOTES: It was the first of five meetings between the Northwest Division rivals. The teams split their six season meetings last season. ... The Avalanche were without captain Gabriel Landeskog. He took a hit late in the first period by San Jose's Brad Stuart in Colorado's last game, but did return to finish the game. ... The Avs remain without last season's leading scorer Ryan O'Reilly, who is holding out due to a contract dispute.

[Associated Press]

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