ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- The Edmonton Oilers, growing accustomed
to Dwayne Roloson's rock-solid goaltending, are heading home with a
commanding lead in the Western Conference finals.
Roloson made 33 saves Sunday, Fernando Pisani and Chris Pronger
scored key goals, and Edmonton beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 3-1
for the second time in a row.
The win gave the Oilers a 2-0 advantage in the best-of-seven
series and a six-game playoff winning streak. They will take both
back home, where they've defeated the Ducks 12 in a row dating to
1999.
Game 3 is in Edmonton on Tuesday and Game 4 is there on
Thursday.
The Ducks outshot the Oilers again in Game 2, 34-25, but Roloson
allowed only Jeff Friesen's second-period goal.
As he had after the opening victory, Roloson credited his
teammates' defense in front of him, but Edmonton coach Craig
MacTavish and other Oilers said the goalie deserves a lot of
credit.
"He's giving us terrific goaltending," MacTavish said. "I was
saying to the coaches after the game that it's amazing what that
quality of goaltending does for your defensive zone coverage.
"He's really into it."
The Oilers' Ryan Smyth added: "We knew they were going to come
out strong, and obviously Rollie is our backbone. He's been doing
it all along in the playoffs for us.
"It's great to see him really step up when he knew they were
going to come out a little bit harder," Smith said.
Although the Oilers seem in great shape with a two-game lead and
two games coming at home, MacTavish said they won't take anything
for granted.
"We want to go back there with the mentality that we're down
2-0 and have a real hunger," the coach said. "Not that we won't
anyway, but we want to play the type of hockey we played against
San Jose when we were down 2-0.
"And to ride the emotion that our fans are going to give us in
our own building and really make home ice a real advantage for
us."
It wasn't an edge for Anaheim as Roloson, the 36-year-old goalie
acquired from Minnesota in a March trade, kept the Ducks at bay
despite almost constant pressure on him. He blocked, gloved, batted
and kicked away almost everything the Ducks could send at him; the
only puck that got past him was Friesen's point-blank shot in
traffic.
Pisani scored the go-ahead goal at 17:09 of the second period.
Michael Peca added an empty-net goal in the waning seconds in a
game very similar to the Oilers' 3-1 victory in the opener.
"It was a better effort than we had the other night, and we
have to find a way to change the momentum," Anaheim coach Randy
Carlyle said. "We maintained a fairly good puck possession for
periods of time, but we didn't find a way to get the puck inside
often enough.
"Everything seems to be going their way at the moment, and we
have to find some way to turn the tide."
A perfect pass from Sergei Samsonov set up Pisani's 20-footer
from the slot. Skating in a crowd near the crease, Samsonov spotted
Pisani and backhanded the puck to him. Pisani's one-timer sailed
past goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.
"I got the puck and snapped it right away and it went in the
top half of the net," Pisani said of his eighth goal of the
postseason. "It's been one of those playoffs where we are
capitalizing on our chances."
Bryzgalov, a 25-year-old rookie from Russia, made 22 saves.
Although he lost for the second time in a row after logging a
shutout string of 229 minutes, 42 seconds earlier in the playoffs,
he still has allowed only four goals in the two losses to the
Oilers.
Friesen evened it at 6:12 of the second period with his third of
the postseason. With traffic in front of the Edmonton goal and the
puck loose in the crease, Friesen sliced across from the left side,
tapped the puck toward the right of the crease, then flipped a
backhander that beat Roloson on the glove side.
Pronger opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first
period with Anaheim's Chris Kunitz off for high-sticking. The
Oilers' 6-foot-6, 220-pound defenseman banged a 50-footer from just
inside the blue line that sailed past Bryzgalov on the stick side
for his third goal and 14th point of the playoffs.
Ales Hemsky, who scored the go-ahead goal for the Oilers in
their Game 1 victory, and Smyth assisted on Pronger's score.
Game notes
The Oilers ran their overall winning streak against the
Ducks to 14 in a row, including four victories during this regular
season. ... Edmonton finished eighth in the conference with 95
points, while the Ducks were sixth with 98. The Oilers shocked
top-seeded Detroit by eliminating the league's best regular-season
team in six games, then beat San Jose in six games after losing the
first two. Anaheim outlasted Calgary in seven games in the opening
series, then swept Colorado.