The Oilers dig deep to bury Avalanche

The National staff

• Last Updated: November 19. 2009 8:12PM UAE / November 19. 2009 4:12PM GMT

The Oilers’ Andrew Cogliano, left, and Colorado’s Kyle Cumiskey crash to the ice. John Ulan / AP

The Edmonton Oilers came from 4-2 down to beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-4 on Wednesday night – and finally earned some kind words from their coach Pat Quinn, who had been outspoken about their lack of fight in recent games.

Sam Gagner shifted the momentum of the game when he scored for the Oilers with 16 seconds left in the second period. Ryan Potulny equalised in a power play less than three minutes into the final period and goals from Patrick O’Sullivan and Alex Hemsky gave Edmonton their first win in five games.

“Our guys have accepted losses a few times,” said Quinn. “There’s been an, ‘Oh, well, we played hard’ response. But we decided to get going later in the game. We had a lot of verve later on. We were in a hole again and it was pretty easy to feel sorry for ourselves but we worked our way out of it.”

Michael Frolik scored twice as the Florida Panthers upset the Northeast Division-leading Buffalo Sabres 6-2. Tomas Vokoun also impressed for the Panthers, making 26 saves.

There was also a fine goaltending performance by Alex Auld who made 31 saves as the Dallas Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1.

Mike Ribeiro, Matt Niskanen and Loui Eriksson scored for the Stars while Henrik Zetterberg was on target for the Wings.

Scotty Upshall got the winning goal for the Phoenix Coyotes in a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild. It came just 19 seconds after Antti Miettinen had levelled for the Wild in the third period.

“This is probably our poorest, I think, performance of the year,” said the Wild coach, Todd Richards.

The Philadelphia Flyers the beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-2, with James van Riemsdyk’s early third-period goal sealing the win.

The Flyers were also indebted to their back-up goaltender Brian Boucher, who made 37 saves.

“Clearly we’re going to need [Boucher] to win us some games as we move through the schedule,” said Philadelphia’s coach, John Stevens. “It’s great to see him get in and have some success.”

And there was more bad news for the Kings, who will be without their gritty winger Ryan Smyth, who was injured in the game against Florida on Monday, for at least a month.



* With agencies