Oilers Tending to Business

When goaltender Dwayne Roloson sprained his knee in the first game of the Stanley Cup finals and Jussi Markkanen gave up five goals to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2, all seemed lost for the Edmonton Oilers.

But Markkanen has regained his rhythm and the Oilers have taken a cue from him. Playing with the confidence and scrappiness that carried them through three playoff rounds, they prolonged the finals to at least six games and denied Carolina the satisfaction of parading the Cup around the RBC Center on Wednesday.

Like the Oilers, the Hurricanes must deal with injuries to key players. They can only hope to find similarly effective solutions when the finals resume on Saturday at Rexall Place, where they’ll get a second chance to finish off the Oilers.

Veteran center Doug Weight and workhorse defenseman Aaron Ward sustained undisclosed injuries during the Hurricanes’ 4-3 overtime loss on Wednesday, and their status is unclear. Neither was made available to reporters during a news conference on Thursday in Edmonton, and Coach Peter Laviolette declined to discuss injuries.

Ward hurt his arm and returned but left again after taking a shot on the right ankle. Weight was sandwiched between Raffi Torres and Chris Pronger early in the third period and skated off bent over and cradling his right arm; he returned to the bench but didn’t play.

Losing one or both would deplete a team that was wearing down under the Oilers’ relentless physical play and didn’t want to get on another plane for a westbound flight Thursday.

“There’s momentum in games, swings in games. Do they have it right now? Yeah, they do,” said Carolina winger Cory Stillman, whose faulty pass to Eric Staal was picked off by Fernando Pisani for the winning goal Wednesday.

“They scored the last goal, they won the game, a big one, in overtime. It’s for us, the guys on the ice, to get it back and get it back as quickly as possible.... It’s a roller-coaster ride. It really is. You win, and everything’s great. You lose and it’s the dumps. [Wednesday] night was one of the dump nights. You forget about it. We have a new beginning, a fresh start, and we’ve got to get ready and be mentally prepared.”

Stillman said he had no information about his injured teammates but expected Weight to play.

If not, he said the Hurricanes have ample depth to compensate for their absence.

“They’re competitors, and Dougie’s going to compete as much as he can. So will Aaron,” Stillman said. “.... We’re expecting to see them again on the bench.”

Oilers Coach Craig MacTavish said he anticipated Chad LaRose and Oleg Tverdovsky would replace Weight and Ward, respectively. He said Tverdovsky “is not chopped liver,” but said the change could have several effects. “When you miss those types of players that are out of your lineup, there’s opportunity there,” he said.

“Opportunity for them and opportunity for us.”

The Hurricanes still have a chance to claim the Cup on Saturday. If not, they’d play the seventh game at home, Monday. The longer it takes, the bigger the advantage for the resurgent Oilers.

“It gets hard,” Stillman said. “They played extremely well from the start last game. They had nothing to lose, and they played that way. We were a little tentative, a little tight.

“Now, we’ve got to be loose. We’ve got two chances to win one game and we want to do it in Game 6.”