Music: {allcanada} Khabibulin gets shutout, Oilers win 6th straight

Thursday, November 3, 2011

{allcanada} Khabibulin gets shutout, Oilers win 6th straight

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Nikolai Khabibulin (notes) outdueled Jonathan Quick (notes) in posting his second shutout of the season, and Lennart Petrell (notes) scored his first NHL goal as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 on Thursday night for their sixth straight win.

Ryan Smyth (notes) and Corey Potter (notes) also scored for the Oilers (8-2-2), who have won eight of their first 12 games for the first time since 1986. That season, Edmonton won the third of their five Stanley Cup titles in seven years.

Last season, the Oilers didn't earn their eighth victory until their 24th game. After a 4-4-10 start, Edmonton went on to finish last in the NHL (25-45-12) for the second straight season.

Khabibulin (6-0-2), a four-time All-Star who went 10-32-4 with a 3.40 goals-against average last season, lowered his NHL-leading GAA to 0.98 with his 45th career shutout. He faced 19 shots while blanking the Kings for the seventh time.

Quick, who came in with a second-best 1.52 GAA, made 24 saves.

The Oilers took a 1-0 lead at 11:26 of the second when Smyth attempted a centering pass from behind the net and the puck deflected off the stick of defenseman Alec Martinez (notes) before fluttering over Quick's right shoulder.

It was the seventh goal for Smyth, who returned to the Oilers in June when the Kings traded him.

Petrell, a 27-year-old center playing in his 11th NHL game, made it 2-0 with 2:22 of the second. Ben Eager (notes) shook off a check by Justin Williams (notes) along the end boards, carried the puck in front and was stopped by Quick before Petrell converted the rebound from the edge of the crease. Quick argued with the referees that Petrell made contact with him before the puck entered the net.

The Oilers scored again when Sam Gagner (notes) jumped on a turnover by Anze Kopitar (notes) in the neutral zone, carried the puck into the Kings' end and circled the net before flipping the puck out in front. Defenseman Willie Mitchell (notes) got his stick on the centering pass, but Potter put it past Quick from the lip of the crease at 1:06 of the third.

NOTES: The Oilers hadn't won six straight since March 2002. They haven't won more since a nine-game run from Feb. 20-March 13, 2001. … The Kings didn't get record their first shot until Khabibulin stopped Dustin Penner's (notes) wrist shot at 10:21 of the first. … The Oilers, who had the NHL's second-worst, penalty-killing percentage last season were 2 for 2 Thursday and have allowed five power-play goals in 48 short-handed situations. … Los Angeles D Drew Doughty (notes) played his first game at Staples Center this season. He sat out five games with an undisclosed upper body injury before returning to the lineup during a three-game road trip. … The Kings won all four meetings with the Oilers last season and were 8-0-4 in the series since a loss to Edmonton on Feb. 28, 2008. … Oilers D Andy Sutton (notes) served the second game of a five-game suspension for elbowing Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog (notes) in the head.