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Tuesday, Dec. 14 7:30pm ET
Few see Isles stumble at home again | |||||
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BOX SCORE
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -- Little has changed since Tommy Salo was last at Nassau Coliseum: the seats are still empty and the Islanders keep losing. Salo, who never played a playoff game in any of his five seasons in New York, made 24 saves in his first start against his former team Tuesday night as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Islanders 4-2. "It was a little bit special beating my old team," Salo said after the Oilers won for only the third time on the road (3-11-3). "I didn't have any butterflies at all. I felt really comfortable." Bill Guerin had a goal and an assist for Edmonton, as the Oilers sent the Islanders to their team-record seventh straight home loss. New York, winless in seven overall, dropped to a league-worst 2-10-1 at home. "We're very fragile at home," Islanders coach Butch Goring said. "We badly want to win one in front of our home fans." That might be what it takes to fill some seats. Only 6,526 came out to see the Islanders, who in 24 games dating to last season have only three wins and three ties at home. New York is also last in the NHL with 16 points. The Oilers played their fifth contest on a six-game trip that ends Wednesday night at Detroit. Edmonton, which has a tie and regulation tie during the stretch, won its second straight. "We're starting to come around and gain confidence on the road," Guerin said. "Tonight was a big win for us." Edmonton took a 2-0 first-period lead with the help of two giveaways by Islanders defenseman Zdeno Chara. Chara turned the puck over to Doug Weight, whose cross-ice pass set up Guerin's fifth goal at 4:56. Weight, the Oilers' captain and second-leading scorer, left midway through the second period with cracked ribs after a cross-check from Gino Odjick. The Edmonton center, who has four goals and 21 assists, is out indefinitely. "It could be a week, four weeks, 10 weeks," coach Kevin Lowe said when asked about Weight's possible return. "It could be anything with ribs." Odjick was very surprised that he was penalized and that Weight was injured. "They passed the puck over and I just tried to push him off balance," Odjick said. "I don't know what happened, it was just a freak play." Chara again made a mistake leading to Edmonton's second goal. Guerin got the puck from Chara on a clearing attempt and moved it to Pat Falloon, who scored his first goal of the season when his shot trickled through Roberto Luongo's pads. It was Falloon's first tally since March 28, a span of 24 games. "You've got to take care of your own end first and then go forward," New York center Claude Lapointe said. "We didn't play 60 minutes tonight." Chara helped get one back by assisting on Mariusz Czerkawski's 12th goal at 6:46 of the second period. But Edmonton regained a two-goal advantage with 3:11 left in the period when Mike Grier beat Luongo for his fourth goal of the season and 100th career point. The Oilers made it 4-1 on the power play just 2:24 later. Janne Niinimaa scored his fourth of the season to give Edmonton only its second goal with the man advantage in 17 opportunities. Mats Lindgren, acquired by New York in the Salo trade, scored his fifth goal with 6:04 left. The Islanders, 0-for-5 on the power play, have gone four games without a power-play goal. New York is just 2-for-30 with the man-advantage in 10 games. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Edmonton Clubhouse NY Islanders Clubhouse Oilers' Weight out indefinitely with cracked ribs
RECAPS New Jersey 7 Los Angeles 1
Edmonton 4 AUDIO/VIDEO   Pat Falloon scores for Edmonton.avi: 683 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||