Oilers extend unbeaten streak vs. Senators with 4-1 win

OTTAWA -- It wasn't quite like being at home, but seeing the Ottawa Senators must have felt like it for the Edmonton Oilers.

The Oilers concluded a six-game road trip Thursday night with a 4-1 victory over the Senators.

The victory, just the sixth in 24 games for Edmonton, ended a three-game winless skid and improved the Oilers' unbeaten streak against the Senators to 13 games over more than eight years.

Anson Carter and Rem Murray scored in the first period after Andre Roy gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead.

Brian Swanson, with his first NHL goal in almost a year and a half, and Mike Comrie also scored. Tommy Salo stopped 20 shots and Ryan Smyth had two assists.

"The guys played well in front of me in the first two periods," Salo said. "It was good for us, the team played great."

Edmonton lost 4-3 in overtime to Detroit on Wednesday.

The Oilers moved within two points of the Dallas Stars for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"We needed it," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "It looked pretty bleak going into Detroit.

"I think we played an intelligent game. We had to limit our turnovers, play a simple road game. We battened down and got three of four points in two tough buildings."

Ottawa, which got a 14-save performance from Jani Hurme, has not defeated Edmonton since winning in overtime on Jan. 18, 1994. The Senators are 0-10-3 since.

"It's basically a wake-up call for guys to start picking things up," Roy said. "They were coming out a hard, desperate team because they need the points.

"There were some points of the game where we didn't have any intensity. With 15 games left, we don't want to be going downhill."

Roy, in his first game back since missing 11 with an ankle injury, beat Salo with a slap shot from the top of the left circle.

But the Oilers replied when Carter scored his 23rd of the season midway through the period. Murray made it 2-1 with 3:01 left in the first.

Swanson, playing his first game of the season and first in the NHL since Dec. 22, 2000, after being called up from Hamilton of the AHL earlier in the day, made it 3-1 at 5:26 of the third. It was his second career NHL goal.

Comrie added an empty-net goal with three seconds remaining.

"Every game is important for us," Carter said. "We picked up a huge point against Detroit. We're right there."

Notes:

Ottawa right winger Bill Muckalt has gone 59 games without a goal, including 56 this season with the Senators. The last time he scored was April 2, 2001, while with the New York Islanders. . . . Senators defenseman Sami Salo missed his third straight game with back spasms. . . . Carter is a goal away from his career high of 24 set in 1998-99 with Boston.