Oilers break third-period tie with Blues, emerge with win

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Edmonton Oilers used their heads to take a full two points from the St. Louis Blues.

Sam Gagner scored the winning goal and also had an assist, and Dwayne Roloson made 21 saves in the Oilers' 2-1 victory Sunday night.

"We played a smart game," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "We played a lot smarter than we had the last couple games. We didn't blow them out of the water or anything, but we had a very sharp game."

Gilbert Brule also scored, and former University of Minnesota star Ryan Potulny had two assists in his first game for the Oilers. Potulny was called up from Springfield of the AHL on Sunday to replace Zach Stortini, placed on injured reserve after sustaining a lower-body injury Friday night in a fight with San Jose's Brad Staubitz.

After a lengthy players-only meeting to address team emotion and the will to win following a 4-1 loss to San Jose on Friday night, veteran Steve Staios was glad that the message seemed to have sunk in.

"It's always great to see the initial reaction after you have a talk like that," Staios said. "We showed a lot more emotion and played a much better skating game."

Yan Stastny scored for St. Louis.

"That definitely wasn't a good effort," Blues forward Jay McClement said. "It's disappointing after we made strides and we played well two nights ago [a 6-4 win over Vancouver]. I think it's unacceptable.

"For whatever reason we just didn't have the bite we did two nights ago. You have to follow up good efforts with just as good, if not better, efforts. I'm sure this one is not sitting well with anyone."

St. Louis opened the scoring 3 minutes into the second period. Jay McClement swung out from behind the net and chipped a shot over Roloson's pad to Stastny. who had an easy tap-in.

Edmonton tied it 8 minutes later when Potulny sprung Brule on a breakaway with a long pass and Brule beat Manny Legace with a deke.

Edmonton took the lead 6 1/2 minutes into the third period after some persistent forechecking. Erik Cole sent a pass back to Gagner just shy of the point and he blew a slap shot past Legace for his fourth goal of the season.

"It's great for Sam," MacTavish said. "He's put a lot of pucks at the net and hasn't had a lot of luck."