Oilers-Blue Jackets Recap: Return of Roli the Goalie

The Edmonton Oilers were home on Monday night to face the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was the 6th game of the six game home-stand. The Oilers needed a victory to make it a .500 home-stand. Dwayne Roloson and Pascal LeClaire started in goal for their teams. There are three ex-Oilers playing for the Blue Jackets with Jason Chimera, Michael Peca and Jan Hejda.

The first shot of the game went to the Oilers only 30 seconds into the game as Raffi Torres went flying down the left wing and fired a shot from the circle. The Jackets came back with Nikolai Zherdev setting up Chimera in the slot and his blast was held by Roloson.

The Jackets came close at 2:30 as Rick Nash took a pass and powered his way to the net and got a shot off that gave Roloson some problems. The Oilers came right back and Sanderson sent a cross ice pass to Brodziak and his shot trickled through LeClaire and rolled into the net.

1-0 Oilers at 3:37

The Oilers continued the pressure and Ales Hemsky found an open Steve Staios across the ice and his blast was kicked away by LeClaire. The Oilers got the first power play opportunity of the game with 7:56 gone as Jared Boll was called for interference. The Oilers did very little on the man advantage until 30 seconds were left and Andrew Cogliano took a pass from Sanderson but his shot was easily saved.

The teams then exchanged some end to end action with both defenses keeping the shots to the outside. Marty Reasoner was then called for holding at 13:27 giving the Blue Jackets their first power play of the game. 37 seconds into the power play, Peca sent Nash in on a breakaway and he was tripped from behind and awarded a penalty shot. Nash came in on his penalty shot and his quick shot goes wide. Off the ensuing face-off, Fedorov won the draw right back to Peca who passed across to Ron Hainsey and his blast from the point beat Roloson.

1-1  at 14:10

The Blue Jackets continued the pressure after the goal and Peca took a shot from the slot that handcuffed Roloson but he managed to clear it away. The Oilers returned the favor and they came right back and Sam Gagner found an open Shawn Horcoff and his shot went off the post. He had LeClaire beaten on that shot but not the post. 

At 16:58 while the Oilers continued the pressure, Geoff Sanderson was called for slashing. The Blue Jackets had a hard time getting anything going on the power play and the best chances actually went to the Oilers as Kyle Brodziak had 2 shots that gave LeClaire some problems. With ten seconds left in the penalty the Oilers were called for too many men on the ice.

The Oilers killed the short 2 man disadvantage. The Oilers killed the rest of the period shorthanded and the period finished still tied at 1 goal apiece. Shots were 9-7 for Columbus in the first period.

Columbus started the second period with :48 left on the power play. The Oilers did a good job of killing off the penalty. The Oilers then had 2 good shifts of pressure and Curtis Glencross was called for slashing giving the Oilers there second power play of the game. The Oilers were buzzing all over the Jackets and Robert Nilsson just

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