(SportsNetwork.com) - The New York Islanders will try to push their winning streak to four straight and pick up a win in Edmonton for the first time in nearly 12 years on Sunday night as they visit the Oilers and Rexall Place.
The Islanders have won the first two games of a seven-game road trip, with the Western Canada portion of the swing ending on Tuesday at Vancouver. New York has won seven of its past nine overall after beating the Calgary Flames 2-1 on Friday.
John Tavares scored both goals and Kyle Okposo picked up a pair of assists to pace the offense. Tavares leads the Islanders with 17 goals and is tied with Okposo for the club lead with 34 points.
Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves and has not lost since Dec. 11.
"We feel pretty good," said New York head coach Jack Capuano. "For us, we got away from our game a little bit during the course of the game but for the most part I just thought it was a good hockey game on both sides."
Halak won his seventh straight start and is an outstanding 21-6-0 this season with a 2.21 goals against average and .919 save percentage with three shutouts. He is a stellar 7-1-1 lifetime against the Oilers with a 1.76 GAA, .920 save percentage and three shutouts.
New York split a pair of meetings last season with the Oilers, but a 3-2 overtime loss in Edmonton extended its series road losing streak to four straight games. The Islanders have not won in Edmonton since March 13, 2003.
The Isles stand a good chance at snapping that skid tonight given that the Oilers are just 2-14-8 over their past 24 games. They lost their second in a row past regulation on Friday, falling 2-1 in a shootout to the Colorado Avalanche.
Ben Scrivens made 27 saves, but yielded goals to Matt Duchene and Alex Tanguay in the tiebreaker. Duchene used a deke and scored on his forehand to open the second round and Scrivens then bit on a deke by Tanguay, who hung on to the puck before firing it over the Oilers netminder.
Despite the loss, the Oilers finished strong, outshooting the Avs 12-3 in the third period and getting a game-tying goal on the power play at 4:47 of the frame. Benoit Pouliot potted the goal in his return from an 18-game absence caused by a broken foot.
"Obviously our third was our best period," said Pouliot.
The Oilers open a four-game homestand tonight not long after trading forward David Perron to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday for forward Rob Klinkhammer and a 2015 first-round pick.
Defenseman Keith Aulie, meanwhile, will wrap a two-game suspension tonight for an illegal check to the head of Calgary forward Matt Stajan on Wednesday.
Scrivens is 2-1-0 lifetime versus the Islanders with a 3.24 GAA and .893 save percentage.
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