Oilers end Red Wings' home streak with shootout win

Hockey Betting Lines

02/24/2007 - Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Smyth scored the game-winner in the shootout as the Edmonton Oilers snapped the Detroit Red Wings 13-game home winning streak with a 4-3 win at Joe Louis Arena.

After Henrik Zetterberg lost the puck on Detroit's first shot, Smyth was Edmonton's first shooter and he stuffed the puck under the pads of Dominik Hasek to give the Oilers the advantage.

Pavel Datsyuk then went from the backhand to the forehand, but Dwayne Roloson made a blocker save on the wrist shot. After Ales Hemsky rang a shot off the left post, Roloson gave Edmonton the win when he made a right pad save on a backhander by Jason Williams.

Smyth, Raffi Torres and Marty Reasoner each scored a goal for the Oilers, who have won their last two after dropping their previous four games. Patrick Thoresen recorded a pair of assists in the win.

Roloson stopped 27 shots for Edmonton, which now has 66 points and is just five points behind idle Calgary for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom and Valtteri Filppula each scored a goal and Hasek made 23 saves for the Red Wings, who lost at home for the first time since a 3-2 setback to Ottawa on December 12 and were looking to tie its longest home winning streak since 1965.

Detroit is in first place in the Central Division and Western Conference with 85 points. Nashville trails the Wings by one point and the two teams will square off tomorrow in the Music City.

The Red Wings wasted no time and used their power play to take an early 2-0 lead.

With two Edmonton players in the box, Detroit worked the outside and from the left circle Mathieu Schneider sent a pass to Zetterberg, who one-timed a shot from the right circle that went between the pads of Roloson just 4:33 in.

Just over three minutes later, this time skating with a one-man advantage, Nicklas Lidstrom fired a shot from the left circle that Holmstrom tipped into the net.

The Oilers, though, answered with a power play tally of their own with five minutes left in the first. The power play unit worked the puck around the edge until Shawn Horcoff got the puck to Thoresen at the low right side. Thoresen centered the puck to Smyth, who got the puck into the net on his second whack to make it a 2-1 game.

Edmonton tied the game in the second period with the game's first even- strength goal after a wrist shot by Thoresen in the slot hit off of a Detroit player and went to the right circle where Torres wristed it under the glove of Hasek with 7:45 left in the frame.

Detroit retook the lead less than four minutes later when Jiri Hudler's centering pass from behind the net hit off an Oiler defenseman and went to the left side where Filppula tapped it into the net for his sixth goal of the season.

Edmonton, however, tied the game in the third period when Marc-Antoine Pouliot took a pass at the left circle and Hasek skated out to poke it away, but the eager veteran netminder missed the puck and Pouliot got the disc to the front where Reasoner tapped it into the open net at 8:24.

Both teams had several opportunities, including a couple of post shots, through the remainder of regulation and overtime, but neither team could net a goal and the game went to the shootout.

Game Notes

Before the game, the Oilers activated right winger Fernando Pisani and defenseman Daniel Tjarnqvist from the injured reserve list, but neither player appeared in the game...The Oilers wrap up their season-high seven-game road trip in Minnesota on Sunday...Detroit is 22-3-4 at home this season...Zetterberg has nine goals and six assists during a six-game scoring streak and racked up 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in 10 games during the month of February...This was the last regular season game between these two clubs with Edmonton winning three of four contests, including two in the shootout...Detroit went 2-for-6 on the power play while Edmonton was 1-for-4.