Music: {allcanada} Oilers play spoiler, defeat Avalanche

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DENVER -- The Edmonton Oilers played the role of spoiler on Monday, handing the Colorado Avalanche a damaging 4-1 loss at Pepsi Center.

It was the Oilers' second win in six nights against the Avalanche (35-29-12), who remained eight points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Colorado has six games left, the next three on the road.

"All year I've been praising our group, how proud I was of them, how hard I thought we worked night after night, how resilient we were," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "But tonight I have to admit I was not pleased with our effort. The effort was not good enough to beat any NHL team tonight. I was very disappointed in our effort tonight."

But Roy refused to concede the Avalanche's playoff chances have vanished.

"We are going to believe in ourselves until it's over," he said. "The day they're going to say it's over it'll be over, but I'm going to push, and that's all I'm thinking. It's the way I am and I like to think the players will do the same."

Brandon Davidson, with his first NHL goal, and defenseman Justin Schultz scored to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead heading to the third period before Nikita Nikitin and Taylor Hall scored empty-net goals.

Goalie Richard Bachman, who grew up in suburban Highlands Ranch, Colo., and played two years at Colorado College, made 29 saves for his second consecutive win.

"Love Denver, it's a great city," said Bachman, who made 29 saves Friday in a 4-0 home win against the Dallas Stars. "It's special to come here and play here and play in this building and be able to get a win.

"The team's been real good the last couple of games. The key is playing the right way. You can see guys are really starting to play for each other, and that's huge. You don't want to let the guy next to you down."

The Oilers (23-40-13) have won three games in a row for the first time since a four-game streak in October.

"I think we're starting to understand if we play the game the right way for 60 minutes, we'll have success," Oilers coach Todd Nelson said. "Where we get in trouble is when we try to take the easy way out. Tonight was a night I thought, for the most part, for 60 minutes we played the right way. That's one thing, and we're getting good goaltending. It's a good team game right now."

The Oilers went ahead 2-1 at 15:28 of the second period on Schultz's goal. Teddy Purcell shot the puck into the Avalanche end with Schultz and Colorado defenseman Nate Guenin in pursuit. Schultz overtook Guenin, corralled the puck and cut to the net. He flipped the puck over goalie Semyon Varlamov's right pad for his sixth goal of the season.

Varlamov went to the bench for a sixth skater with 2:20 to play in regulation. Nikitin scored his empty-net goal with 2:07 remaining and Hall followed 32 seconds later.

"I don't know which words to use to describe it, but it just wasn't good enough," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "From the get-go, it didn't feel like we were ready to compete, and to compete hard enough to win a hockey game.

"It doesn't matter where a team is in the standings or who you're playing, if they're out-competing you and working harder than you, they're ultimately going to beat you. That's what happened here tonight and it's unacceptable."

Davidson, a rookie playing in his sixth NHL game, gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead with his first goal at 4:49 of the opening period. Anton Lander had the puck along the goal line to the left of Varlamov when he passed to Davidson driving down left wing for a shot into a half-open net.

"It was a beautiful pass from the corner," Davidson said. "I had to blink twice to make sure it was real. He was able to put it on my stick and I don't think I saw where it went in. The guys had to tell me just to make sure it went in.

"It's a great win for us. We're on a little bit of a streak here and I'm glad I can be a part of it and contribute any way possible. It's exciting times in Oil country."

The Avalanche tied the game at 13:18 on Ryan O'Reilly's 15th goal of the season. Alex Tanguay took a shot from near the top of the right circle; O'Reilly drove to the net and put in the rebound. He has five goals and 12 assists in an eight-game scoring streak, the longest of his NHL career.

But the Avalanche didn't apply much pressure against Bachman after that, and Roy juggled line combinations in the third period to no avail.

"You saw it coming," Roy said. "We didn't have a very good third period [in a 5-3 win Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres] and we said it was because we had four games in six nights. We gave them a day off [Sunday] thinking it would be the best thing for them to be ready for tonight's game, and we had a so-so morning skate.

"We're a team that needs to work hard every night. Our habits are so important for us to have some success, and tonight it was not there."

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