The moment was so bittersweet for Edmonton Oilers winger Kyle Brodziak. He finally put away his first NHL goal — too bad it happened on a night when his team lost its 10th consecutive game.
Brodziak scored the goal in his 16th NHL game, tying the game for the dogged Oilers against the St.
Louis Blues late in the first period on Saturday at Rexall Place.
The Blues, with the game-winner from former Oilers defenceman Eric Brewer, left town with a 3-2 victory.
The Oilers loss spoiled the satisfaction for Brodziak, as did the fact that his father, Dale, who lost his battle with cancer in 1998, wasn’t there to see the milestone moment.
“I don’t think a day goes by when I don’t think about him, but every significant point in my life I wish he was there,” said Brodziak. “It just would have been a million times better if he was here.
“But I like to think he’s watching down on us.
That’s the kind of faith my family has always had.”
It was Brodziak’s mother who made the trip in from Vegreville to watch her son play in his first game in Rexall Place last season, and she was there again on Saturday.
“It was a last-minute decision for her to come.
She figured she better come just in case,” the 22-year-old tenderfoot said.
“It’s fortunate she got to see it. And I know I had a bunch of friends here, too.
”
The Oilers (30-35-4-3) continue their homestand on Monday night against the Vancouver Canucks. With the point they picked up against St. Louis and the Minnesota Wild’s 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames, Edmonton has still not been officially eliminated.
Another positive is that their power-play skid has ended. Shawn Horcoff banged in a Petr Sykora rebound with 22 seconds left in a third-period man advantage. The power play had been 0-for-32 through nearly 10 games when Horcoff notched his 230th career point.
“The first two periods we weren’t good, but we came out in the third and end up getting a break, finally, on the power play and stopped that 0-for streak,” coach Craig MacTavish said. “It would have been nice to stop the mourning here for a little while with the win, so again a disappointing finish.”
The Blues (30-29-6-6) also got the game’s opening goal.
They had just run out the clock on their only power play of the first period when Petr Cajanek, with a cross-ice feed from Barret Jackman, whipped in a shot from the faceoff circle.
It took just 40 seconds for Brodziak to get the Oilers back in the game.
“The adrenalin’s going and you don’t even remember it happening,” he said.
“It just happened so quick.
“I might have looked calm, but I’d like to watch it just to know what I did. When you don’t have (a goal), you don’t know when or if you’re ever going to get one.
It feels good to get that first one, but I remember thinking, between periods, how much better it would be with a win.”
Defenceman Jeff Woywitka, who became a member of the Blues when the Oilers packaged him in the Chris Pronger deal, scored his first NHL goal midway through the second period.
The Oilers could have been faced with an even bigger hole to dig out of had it not been for the stellar work of Dwayne Roloson, who faced 40 shots on a night the Oilers would only generate 24.
He deflected a shot from Brewer just before the teams filed off for the second-period intermission, then denied Radek Dvorak, yet another former Oiler, on the rebound attempt.
Oilers defenceman Ladislav Smid, meanwhile, took a puck in the midsection with just under four minutes left in the second period. The diagnosis was bruised ribs, which could mean a call-up for junior prospect Sebastien Bisaillon.
“It’s obviously not an ideal situation for us,” MacTavish said.
“This was a good opportunity for us to get the win and we didn’t do it,” Brodziak said.
jireland@thejournal.
canwest.com
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