Avalanche push Oilers down in Western Conference standings with loss

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Game Information

Arena: Rexall Place Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Referees: Steve Kozari, Chris Rooney Linesmen: Vaughan Rody, Jay Sharrers

Attendance: 16,839 (100.0% full)

Team Stat Comparison
190	Goals	228
253	Goals Against	244
50	Power Play Goals	60
64	Power Play Goals Allowed	76
4	Shorthanded Goals	3
8	Shorthanded Goals Allowed	8
1062	Penalty Minutes	1247
13	Average Penalty Minutes	15

Scoring Summary
1ST PERIOD
	3:09	Robert Nilsson Unassisted
	15:02	Darcy Tucker (power play) Assist: Chris Stewart, John-Michael Liles
2ND PERIOD
No scoring this period
3RD PERIOD
	4:20	Paul Stastny (power play) Assist: John-Michael Liles, Wojtek Wolski
	14:40	Sheldon Souray Assist: Kyle Brodziak, Steve Staios
OT
	:42	John-Michael Liles Assist: Marek Svatos, Scott Hannan

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Colorado Avalanche played the spoiler role to perfection, though that's not the way they look at it.

John-Michael Liles scored 42 seconds into overtime to give the Avalanche a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.

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"We're not looking at it as being spoilers right now, we're just looking to win as many games as we can," Colorado coach Tony Granato said.

Darcy Tucker and Paul Stastny also scored for the Avalanche, coming off a win over the playoff-contending Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. With the victory, Colorado moved out of the Western Conference basement -- a point ahead of Phoenix.

"We're not worried about who we are playing or where they are in the standings," Granato said. "We're worried about wining the games and still trying to climb as high as we can and play as hard as we can all the way to the end."

Robert Nilsson and Sheldon Souray scored for Edmonton. The Oilers lost for the third straight time in overtime to drop from seventh to a tie for eighth with Nashville in the Western Conference.

"It was just a missed opportunity early," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "We had a great opportunity to win the game early, but after that it was just poor playmaking. We didn't make enough plays from breakouts on through. And the faceoffs, it's hard to sustain anything when you can't win those.

"It's a point, but it wasn't a great effort."

Nilsson opened the scoring for Edmonton at 3:09 of the first period, and Tucker tied it on a power play with 4:58 left in the period. Stastny added a power-play goal at 4:20 of the third, and Souray tied it with 5:20 left in regulation.

Game notes
Colorado defenseman Adam Foote missed the game. He sustained a head injury Thursday when he was hit by Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck. ... The Avalanche have played an NHL-high 37 one-goal games this season.