Oilers Make Sure Their Sweep Is Clean

Edmonton arrived in Southern California riding a two-game losing streak and seeking to get its offense back on track against the Mighty Ducks and Kings this week. It didn’t happen.

Instead, the Oilers turned up their defense and that was enough to record back-to-back victories, including Thursday night’s 3-1 win over the Kings in front of 15,643 at Staples Center.

After defeating the Ducks, 2-0, on Wednesday, Edmonton jumped on top of the Kings early and then rode the skills of goaltender Tommy Salo, who finished with 17 saves, including a highlight stop on Ziggy Palffy midway through the third period.

The defeat ended a three-game unbeaten streak for the Kings, who dropped to 7-12-3-2. King goaltender Jamie Storr didn’t play badly, making 27 saves, but it wasn’t good enough to duplicate his 4-2 victory at Edmonton on Thanksgiving.

“They battled more than we did,” King defenseman Philippe Boucher said. “We are not going to have any easy games in this league. We worked hard to gain those points [over the previous three games]. That’s how it is going to have to be. It hurts to lose but we have to regroup.”

The Oilers, who lead the Pacific Division with a 16-7-3-1 record, played the type of responsible hockey Coach Craig MacTavish was hoping for when they made it to Los Angeles on Sunday.

“We had a solid defensive game that we’ve been able to retreat back into after defeats,” MacTavish said. “It’s always good to have the ability to win games with defense. Obviously with the absence of Ryan Smyth [sidelined because of a broken ankle], we are not going to be as prolific offensively as we were early on in the season. We need to have games like this.”

Defenseman Eric Brewer got things going for Edmonton when he scored a power-play goal 2 minutes 9 seconds into the game. From the left point, Brewer shot a laser that flew under diving King forward Kelly Buchberger, and Storr never had a chance.

The score shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the Kings, who entered the game with the 24th-ranked penalty-killing unit in the league.

With an early lead, Salo and the Oilers were able to keep the Kings scoreless despite giving them four power-play chances in the first period, including a four-minute man-advantage situation.

“He was brilliant,” MacTavish said about Salo. “That’s the type of goaltending that we need. He’s been doing that ever since I’ve been here. He made some very difficult saves. There weren’t a lot of shots but they were tough. He had to make a lot of them coming across the front of the net on goal-mouth passes.

“That’s the real strength of his game, he doesn’t panic. He knows where the threats are. He makes a very difficult save look easy because of his awareness.”

Getting behind the Oilers early is not something King Coach Andy Murray wanted for his team, which had not played since Saturday’s home victory over the San Jose Sharks.

“Edmonton was better than us in every phase of the game from the start,” Murray said. “They are a team second overall in the Western Conference and they are very deserving of [their record]. To play back-to-back games and bounce back after we beat them last week. That’s a credit to their team.”

Edmonton, which outshot the Kings, 12-10, in the first period, extended its lead to 2-0 in the second, thanks to a bad rebound left in the crease by Storr. Forward Jochen Hecht scored his eighth goal of the season when Storr failed to hold onto a blue-line shot by defenseman Janne Niinimaa at 8:57.

Hecht’s goal took on added importance when the Kings’ Eric Belanger made things interesting by scoring at 14:44 of the third period. With the Kings on a power play, Belanger glided through the Oilers’ defense and beat Salo for his fifth goal of the season.

But it was too little, too late. The Oilers put the finishing touches on the night when Mike Grier scored an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

“We have to really keep digging down and stay focused because tonight it could have easily gone the other way,” Storr said. “We’re that close.”