Oilers Move Up With 4-3 Overtime Victory

From the Edmonton Oilers’ perspective, they needed to score twice in overtime to put away the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3, Friday night at Chicago.

Overcoming a disallowed goal, the Oilers won to step up from eighth to sixth place in the Western Conference standings, increasing their total to 91 points, four ahead of ninth-place Vancouver.

“This win is huge for us emotionally,” Edmonton Coach Craig MacTavish said. “It would have been very demoralizing for us to come out of here with anything less than two points.”

The Oilers’ game-winner came at 3:18 of the extra session when Ryan Smyth, who had two goals in the game, came up with a power-play score.

Only 16 seconds earlier, it appeared that Edmonton’s Fernando Pisani had slid the puck past Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin’s glove and barely over the goal line. But the goal was disallowed after a video review. Even Chicago Coach Trent Yawney expected it to be a goal.

“I thought it was in,” Yawney said. “The guys were saying it was. I guess [Khabibulin’s] glove made it inconclusive.”

Philadelphia 4, Buffalo 2 -- Simon Gagne had a goal and two assists, helping the Flyers clinch a playoff spot with the victory at Buffalo, N.Y.

Robert Esche made 19 saves for Philadelphia, which closed within three points of the first-place New York Rangers in the Atlantic Division. The Flyers played without forwards Peter Forsberg and Petr Nedved, who sat out because of groin injuries.

“From a confidence standpoint, this helps us,” said Flyer Coach Ken Hitchcock, whose team’s last win at Buffalo was April 8, 2001.

Carolina 4, Washington 3 -- Justin Williams scored two of the Hurricanes’ franchise-record three short-handed goals, and Carolina moved into a first-place tie atop the Eastern Conference with the victory at Washington.

Alexander Ovechkin had an assist to reach 99 points in his rookie season, but it wasn’t enough to help the Capitals.

Calgary 2, Minnesota 1 -- Jamie Lundmark scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period at Calgary, Canada, and goalie Miikka Kiprusoff gained his franchise-record 40th victory for the Flames. The loss eliminated the Wild from playoff contention.

Starting for the 19th time in 20 games, Kiprusoff made 21 saves to eclipse the club record of 39 wins set by Mike Vernon during the 1987-88 season.

Detroit 6, Columbus 5 -- Tomas Holmstrom scored the only goal of a five-round shootout to lift the Red Wings at Detroit.

In regulation, shortly after the Blue Jackets pulled goalie Marc Denis for an extra attacker, Rick Nash scored his third goal of the game to tie it at 5-5 with 32.1 seconds left.

Pittsburgh 5, Florida 1 -- Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists, Sebastien Caron made 36 saves, and the Penguins ended a 12-game losing streak to the Panthers at Sunrise, Fla. The loss eliminated the Panthers from the playoff contention.