AP News, January 13th, 2007
Marian Gaborik scored twice and the Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Friday night, earning their second straight road win.
Brian Rolston and Keith Carney also scored for Minnesota, which moved into a second-place tie with Vancouver in the Northwest Division, one point behind Calgary.
It was the second consecutive two-goal night for Gaborik, who led the Wild to a 5-2 win at Vancouver on Thursday that snapped Minnesota's 11-game winless streak on the road.
Petr Sykora and Shawn Horcoff had goals for the Oilers, who had a five-game point streak broken.
Strong play from Minnesota goalie Manny Fernandez and Edmonton counterpart Dwayne Roloson resulted in a scoreless first period, a frame in which the Oilers held a 12-6 shots advantage.
Edmonton opened the scoring just 20 seconds into the middle period when Ryan Smyth made a deft pass from behind the Wild net to Horcoff, who fired a shot between Fernandez's legs.
The Oilers kept up the good pressure but it was the Wild who scored twice within 43 seconds.
Gaborik made it 1-1 at 5:23, picking up his own rebound off a save by Roloson, spinning around and firing a shot into the corner from the right circle.
Rolston then put Minnesota ahead 2-1 at 6:06, converting a big rebound in front of the Oilers' goal.
Edmonton rallied to tie it at 17:47 when Petr Nedved backhanded a pass to Sykora, who fired a shot in from the slot.
Minnesota went ahead for good at 9:56 of the third when Carney's seemingly harmless shot from the point deflected in off Oilers defenseman Jan Hejda. Gaborik sealed the victory with an empty-net goal at 19:57.
Gaborik, who added an assist Thursday against Vancouver, played just his fourth game since returning to the Minnesota lineup after missing 34 with a groin injury. The right winger, who went without a point in his first two games back, has eight goals and 11 points this season.
Notes:@ It was the second meeting of the season between the divisional rivals. Edmonton won the first game 3-1. The teams will face off six more times. ... Minnesota won the series 6-2 last season, including all four games in Edmonton. ... Oilers C Joffrey Lupul played in his 200th NHL game.
