Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Sports

Maple Leafs slip past Oilers 4-1

Associated Press
Published | Updated

EDMONTON, Alberta – Kris Versteeg had a goal and an assist and the Toronto Maple Leafs kicked off their Western Canada road trip with a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.

Dion Phaneuf, Mikhail Grabovski and Phil Kessel also scored for the Leafs, who have won two in a row and four of their past six and moved into a three-way tie for 10th in the Eastern Conference with Buffalo and Carolina.

Jordan Eberle scored for the Oilers, who have lost two in a row and three of four to remain in last place in the West.

The Oilers started strong, but it was the Maple Leafs who struck first almost six minutes in as Phaneuf beat Oilers starter Nikolai Khabibulin with a point shot for his first goal of the season. Khabibulin finished with 30 saves.

Edmonton tied the game six minutes later as Ryan Whitney did a good job keeping a puck in at the point and sent it to Sam Gagner, who slid a pass under Leafs defenseman Francois Beauchemin to Eberle to give the rookie forward his seventh goal of the season.

Toronto had a good chance to regain the lead with under a minute left as Versteeg had an open net to shoot for in a scramble, but Khabibulin dove across to make a pad save.

The shots were 12-12 after the opening period, significant for the Oilers in that it tied their shots on net from the entire game in Sunday's 2-1 loss to Vancouver.

The Leafs went up 2-1 at 8:28 of the second on the power play as Clarke MacArthur faked a shot and instead sent a nice feed to Grabovski, who tapped in his ninth goal of the season.

Toronto made it 3-1 with two minutes to play in the second as Versteeg's shot dropped into the crease behind Khabibulin and went in off the skate of defender Jason Strudwick as the Oilers attempted to clear it.

Phaneuf didn't make himself any more fans in his hometown in the third as he wrapped an arm around Oilers rookie Taylor Hall long after a whistle, prompting Dustin Penner to jump him and earning the Toronto captain an unsportmanlike call.

But it was Toronto which would score on the power play a couple of minutes later as Versteeg made a nice pass through the crease to Kessel who got his 12th goal of the season.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 23 saves for the Leafs.

Notes: The teams split the season series. Edmonton took the opener 5-0 in Toronto on Dec. 2. ... Defenseman Jim Vandermeer, out with a sprained ankle, joined the Oilers' injured list which includes forwards Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff. His spot on the blue line was taken by veteran Jason Strudwick, who had sat out the previous 13 games. ... Out for Toronto were forward Mike Brown (broken finger), forward Jay Rosehill (day to day with a broken nose) and defenseman Mike Komisarek (out 1-2 weeks with a finger injury).