Eurolanche

Stopped by the Oilers

Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves and the Edmonton Oilers scored all of their goals on the power play to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 on Monday night at Rexall Place.

Ales Hemsky, Jordan Eberle, Shawn Horcoff and Nail Yakupov, into an empty net, scored on the man advantage for the Oilers (3-2-0). Taylor Hall and Sam Gagner each picked up two assists for Edmonton.

PA Parenteau scored for the Avalanche (2-3-0), with his tally coming midway in the third period. Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves in the game, with 12 coming in the opening stanza.

The Avalanche outshot the Oilers in the contest, 38-27, including by a 24-6 margin in the third period.

Edmonton opened the scoring with five minutes left to play in the first on the tail end of a power play. Hemsky swooped in and swatted a puck past Varlamov during a scramble in front of the net.

The Oilers added another power-play goal with two minutes left in the period as Eberle's shot from the top of the circle found the upper half of the cage for his third tally of the season.

Edmonton took a three-goal lead midway through the second as Hall's shot hit Horcoff's skate in front of the goal and squeaked past Varlamov.

Colorado had its best chance to that point of the game a minute later as Jamie McGinn had Dubnyk beat but rang a shot off the post.

Persistent pressure by the Avalanche in the third finally paid off eight minutes in as Parenteau fired a shot under Dubnyk's pads at the side of the net to make it 3-1.

Yakupov scored his third of the season for the Oilers in an empty net with 30 seconds left and Varlamov on the Colorado bench for an extra attacker.

Colorado returns to the ice on Wednesday when they play at Vancouver. Edmonton plays the same night in Phoenix.

Notes: It was the first of five meetings between the Northwest Division rivals. The teams split their six season meetings last season. ... The Avalanche was without captain Gabriel Landeskog, who was out with leg and head injuries. Landeskog was leveled late in the first period by San Jose's Brad Stuart in Colorado's last game and did return to finish the contest on Saturday. ... The Oilers came into the game having been shorthanded 13 times in the first period in four games so far this season, the most in the NHL. They took two first-period penalties against Colorado.

-- by The Canadian Press --