Marchant Ends the Oilers’ Drought

Todd Marchant broke a tie with 5:46 remaining as the Edmonton Oilers beat the San Jose Sharks, 2-1, Tuesday night at Edmonton to break their nine-game winless streak.

Ryan Smyth -- back in the lineup after missing nine games because of a shoulder injury -- scored in the first period and set up Marchant’s winner. His pass was redirected by Marchant.

The Oilers were 0-5-2-2 during their drought.

Edmonton has been clinging to the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference and allowed the Kings, Nashville, Phoenix and Chicago back into contention during their winless run.

The Oilers hadn’t won since Feb. 11, when they beat Toronto. Both Smyth and captain Jason Smith were injured in that game. The Oilers’ longest winless streak since 1997 followed.

Scott Hannan scored for the Sharks, who had only 16 skaters dressed for the game.

San Jose forward Mike Ricci and defenseman John Fahey were in the lineup but neither played. Ricci has a bad back and Fahey was hit in the head in Calgary on Saturday.

The Sharks tied it at 8:15 of the second period when Hannan -- left alone in front of Tommy Salo -- easily tapped Vincent Damphousse’s pass from behind the net.

Ottawa 4, Toronto 1 -- Radek Bonk, Mike Fisher, Karel Rachunek and Wade Redden scored power-play goals as the Senators took full advantage of the Maple Leafs’ lack of discipline in a fight-filled win at Ottawa. The teams combined for 36 penalties and 163 penalty minutes.

Minnesota 3, New Jersey 2 -- Willie Mitchell’s deflected goal late in the third period helped the Wild win at St. Paul, Minn. Minnesota, which blew a 2-0 first-period lead, has won four of five and is in sixth place in the Western Conference playoff race.

Boston 4, Carolina 2 -- Brian Rolston had a goal and two assists as the Bruins broke a season-worst nine-game winless streak with a win at Raleigh, N.C. It was the fifth consecutive loss for the Hurricanes.

Philadelphia 3, Vancouver 0 -- Roman Cechmanek had 41 saves to post his fourth shutout and lead the Flyers to the win at Philadelphia against the league’s highest-scoring team.

Tampa Bay 3, New York Islanders 1 -- Martin St. Louis scored his team-leading 30th goal as part of a three-goal first period to help the Lightning extend its winning streak to four with a win at Uniondale, N.Y.

St. Louis 2, Nashville 1 -- Justin Papineau scored the game-winner 1:45 into overtime for the Blues at St. Louis. The Blues won their third in a row, despite finishing with a season-low 12 shots. St Louis had only two shots in the third period.

Washington 2, Buffalo 1 -- Jeff Halpern scored twice and Olaf Kolzig -- making his eighth start in a row -- stopped 35 shots to help the Capitals win at Buffalo. Washington improved to a season-best seven games over .500.

Phoenix 4, Pittsburgh 1 -- Shane Doan scored the Coyotes’ first two goals to support another strong game in net by Sean Burke and the Coyotes improved to 7-2-1 in their last 10 with the win at Pittsburgh.