Fresh off a pair of wins at home to start the season, the Edmonton Oilers returned to their old ways by losing on the road.

Mikael Samuelsson had a goal and assist and goalie Dominik Hasek made 18 saves to guide the Red Wings to a 4-2 win over the Oilers in Detroit Monday night.

Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson is set to stop a re-direction by Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom on Monday.
(Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

A year after reaching the 2006 Stanley Cup finals, the Oilers (2-1) went 13-24-4 away from Edmonton last season, as it failed to reach the playoffs.

“Against a team like that, that’s a puck control team, they’re going to possess the puck,” Oilers forward Horcoff said of the Red Wings. “That’s okay with us as long as we keep them to the outside. When we got in trouble was when we let them inside.”

Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom each had a pair of assists for Detroit (2-0-1), who split a pair of shootout games to begin the season, winning at home over Anaheim and losing on the road in Chicago.

Veteran defenceman Chris Chelios scored for the Red Wings Monday while playing in his 1,550th NHL regular season game to move past former Detroit star Alex Delvecchio for eighth place on the all-time list.

Chelios, 45, is playing his 24th NHL campaign and could still pass Ray Bourque (1,612) and Larry Murphy (1,615) this season.

Lidstrom’s two assists gives him 873 career points, moving him past Peter Forsberg for the second-highest total among Swedish-born players in NHL history. Toronto’s Mats Sundin is first with 1,249.

Zetterberg is off to a fast start this season with seven points on a goal and six assists.

“It’s always nice to get some points on the board,” he said. “I’ve had some easy assists.”

Red Wings get jump on lead

Detroit jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Samuelsson and Chelios. Samuelsson beat Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson on a wraparound at 6:51 and Chelios scored at 14:10 after getting two chances to bang in his own rebound.

The Olilers struck back a mere 19 seconds after Chelios’s goal when Harcoff fired a wrist shot from the slot past Hasek.

Tomas Holmstrom made it 3-1 just 27 seconds into the second period, converting a chance set up for him by Zetterberg.

Rookie forward Andrew Cogliano, a first round pick (25th overall) in the 2005 draft out of the University of Michigan, netted his first career NHL goal with 10 seconds left in the period when he streaked down the right side and potted a perfect pass from Joni Pitkanen.

“We were in pretty good shape after two periods,” said Oilers coach Craig MacTavish.

The Oilers pressed for the equalizer in the third, but Hasek made eight saves in the period and Kris Draper added a late empty-net goal to preserve the win for the Red Wings.

“We didn’t give them the neutral zone, didn’t give them too many chances,” said Hasek.

The Oilers play Wednesday in Minnesota against the Wild, then return home to host the Vancouver Canucks on Friday. The Oilers and Canucks meet the following night in Vancouver (CBC, 10 p.m. ET).

With files from Associated PressContinue Article

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Tags: Wings, Oilers, season

Posted on November 5th, 2006 by Klaus Roe
Filed under: Fun and Games