Oilers pounce on Preds 6-1

Edmonton's JF Jacques pressures Nashville's Shea Weber during Monday's game in Tennessee. The Oilers won 6-2. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)

---

PRE-GAME

Preview Game Notes Head-to-Head Stats Comparison Game Program Video interviews Audio Interviews

PHOTOS

Click here for the photo gallery

VIDEO

Click for highlights! Post-game comments from Jeff Deslauriers, Zack Stortini, Taylor Chorney & Pat Quinn Predators post-game interviews

AUDIO

Audio highlights Zack Stortini Jeff Deslauriers Taylor Chorney Pat Quinn

THREE STARS

Jeff Deslauriers, EDM Zack Stortini, EDM Andrew Cogliano, EDM

UPDATE

With the win, Edmonton improves to 3-1-1 and moves into a tie with Colorado for fourth place in the Western Conference.

WHAT'S NEXT

Edmonton concludes their short two-game road trip Wednesday, October 14 in Chicago. The game starts at 6:30pm MST and will be broadcast on TSN.

by Jen Sharpe | edmontonoilers.com

Four goals in the first period, including two by Zack Stortini, gave the Oilers the start they were looking Monday night, and the club held on through the following 40 minutes to walk away with a 6-1 victory in Nashville.

Shawn Horcoff, Gilbert Brule, Andrew Cogliano, and Denis Grebeshkov scored Edmonton's other four goals, while Jeff Deslauriers made 40 saves for a confident win in his first start of the season.

FIRST PERIOD

Less than two minutes in, Stortini and Triston Grant dropped their gloves for a lengthy battle to the right of Jeff Deslaurier's net. Both players sat out five minutes for the fight, and the Predators used the following face-off to swarm and thoroughly test the Oilers goalie.

Although the home team owned the shot clock, the visitors were the first to make one count. At the seven minute mark, Ales Hemsky faked a shot and fed the puck to Shawn Horcoff, who one-timed it past Pekka Rinne to make it 1-0 Oilers.

Four minutes later, Gilbert Brule doubled Edmonton's lead. While flying up ice with Dustin Penner on the opposite wing, Brule surprised Rinne by cutting towards the net and tapping Penner's backhand pass into the net for a 2-0 lead.

Shortly after the goal, Marcel Goc was called for holding and the Oilers benefited from the game's first powerplay. It took nearly the full two minutes, but the man-advantage proved advantageous when Stortini went top shelf for his first of the season and Edmonton's third of the game.

The Predators earned two powerplays of their own as the period progressed, but the club was unable to beat Deslauriers and remained down by three. Upon the return of five-on-five, Stortini struck again -- and not with his fists, as is usually the case. With help from Andrew Cogliano and Jason Strudwick, the Oilers enforcer backhanded the puck past Rinne to mark two goals and a fight on his first-period resume.

Although the Oilers were up 4-0 after 20 minutes, they trailed the Predators 12-9 on the shot clock.

SECOND PERIOD

Dan Ellis replaced Rinne between the Preds pipes to start the middle frame. Ellis stopped his first two shots faced, but when speedy Cogliano showed up on his doorstep, he couldn't catch the puck and saw his club's deficit increase to 5-0.

Nashville topped 20 shots at the game's midway point, while Edmonton had yet to reach 15. As the period continued, two more Predators powerplays failed to net the first home goal of the night, and the Oilers countered with number six. Defenceman Denis Grebeshkov kept up the backhand success and lifted it over Ellis with two minutes left on the clock.

In the final minute and after 25 attempts, Nashville's captain Jason Arnott finally broke Deslaurier's perfect stretch by redirecting Patric Hornqvist's shot to set the score 6-1 heading into the final frame.

THIRD PERIOD

Nashville cracked 30 shots and then doubled Edmonton's 17, but Deslauriers showcased his flexibility and reflexes with a handful of stellar saves to preserve his club's commanding lead.

A game-ending powerplay pushed the Predators to 41 shots, but Deslauriers closed out the game brilliantly and secured a confident winning start to the Oilers road schedule.