| The Ties That Bind.... The Oilers To 10th Place | |
| Dennis King | March 4, 2004 |
Nedved and Markkanen make impact in Oilers debut but it's not enough as Edmonton ties St. Louis, 1-1.
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| Smyth | Horcoff | Pisani | Brewer | Cross | |||||
| Torres | Nedved | Dvorak | Smith | Staios | |||||
| Moreau | Oates | Hemsky | Bergeron | Ulanov | |||||
| Chimera | Stoll | Laraque | |||||||
| Markkanen | |||||||||
| Salo | |||||||||
| Scratched: Ferguson, Bishai | |||||||||
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The Oilers are running out of time in the WC race and before they can topple the 8th place Kings, they must first supplant the 9th place Blues. The Oilers headed into Thursday's game trailing St. Louis by two points and holding serve in their latest head to head matchup does nothing to further their playoff pursuit.
Of course the big news heading into this contest was the reacquisiton of Jussi Markkanen and the Oilers debut of Petr Nedved with both rushing around the continental US in order to make it for the game.
Both factored into the decision but the Oilers left Missouri with little more than the realization that they will need even more outside help than they'd originally hoped for.
Edmonton did look charged by the new additions and early on took the play to the Blues. But the theme of the night emerged early as Chris Osgood stoned the Oilers early and often and kept the Blues afloat while they surprisingly had to find the legs to play in such a pivotal matchup.
The first 40 minutes finished scoreless but the second period saw a flurry of chances.
With the Blues enjoying a PP, Ryan Smyth broke free from Pronger and was awarded a penalty shot once the big defenseman's stick floated away during his attempt to stop the Oilers winger. Smyth glided in on the penalty shot but Osgood stopped him five hole. Later on Smyth would once again be the catalyst as he fed Horcoff a deft pass from behind the Blues cage. Osgood panicked and went down early but Horcoff hit him in the shoulder.
The Blues came hard in the waning minutes of the frame with both sides skating four apiece. Dallas Drake was stoned in tight with Markkanen standing his ground.
Alex Khavnov opened the scoring early in the final frame as Markkanen couldn't control the rebound of a Demitra shot and the puck bounded into the slot. Khavnov walked had escaped the check of Dvorak and he walked in to pot the rebound.
Raffi Torres tied the game later in the period off some nice work from his Czech linemates though the burly left winger did start the pressure when he absorded a thunderous Pronger check only to emerge from the potential rubble with the puck in tow. He fed Nedved for a slot chance and Dvorak collected the rebound to slip a pass to Torres for the marker.
St Louis dominated the overtime session and the Oilers finished the night still five points back of the Kings who were just about to start their home game versus the Wild
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| Chris Osgood - Great rebound control and great reflexes. | |||||
| Ryan Smyth - Can't fault the guy for the lack of Horcoff finish and Smyth was quite the playmaker in this game. He played 23:08 and had five shots on net to boot. | |||||
| Jussi Markkanen - In a season when most nights the Oilers can look back at two goals that could be questioned, Jussi was very steady. | |||||
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Mactavish shortened his bench early in the second period and the first and second lines remained intact but Moreau replaced Chimera on the 4th line....The chemistry between Nedved and Dvorak was quite evident though it looked like Nedved had a hard time keeping up on the rush and for the first two periods it looked like the two countrymen forgot they had a left winger......It's only been a couple of games and even the play of veterans can flatten out but Ulanov made two brutal giveaways in this game and maybe his play is about to take a big decline. The book on him has been that his streaks are extreme either way and considering how great he played early on, this may be something to look for.
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It is certainly fun to watch Marc-Andre Bergeron trying to ply his trade. He can handle the puck tenatively when faced with a forecheck but he loves to jump up in the play and somehow hardly ever gets caught. He played 16:37, had four shots and finished -1. Nedved played 18:07, went 9/14 from the dot and finished with three shots on net and an assist...Jussi made 27 saves in his return
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A PPV affair as the Oilers travel to Chicago to face the Hawks. Gametime is 4:30 NST. (1:00 pm mountain)
