Coyotes 5, Oilers 1
Sam Gagner victimized his former team with two goals and two assists while Martin Erat and defenseman Brandon Gormley both recorded one of each as visiting Arizona completed a sweep of the five-game season series.
Blue-liner Keith Yandle also scored and Martin Hanzal collected three assists for the Coyotes, who outscored Edmonton 21-9 in the five meetings. Former Oiler Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves as Arizona salvaged the finale of its three-game road trip after yielding 11 goals in the first two contests.
Defenseman Justin Schultz netted the lone goal for the Oilers, who suffered their eighth straight loss (0-6-2) and 19th in 20 games (1-13-6) while falling to 0-2-2 under interim coach Todd Nelson. Ben Scrivens stopped only one of the three shots he faced before being replaced by Viktor Fasth, who finished with 16 saves.
Arizona needed only 1:44 to get on the board as Gagner - who was drafted sixth overall by Edmonton in 2007 - carried down the right wing and unleashed a bad-angle shot from below the faceoff circle that sailed between Oilers captain Andrew Ference's legs and Scrivens' pads. Erat doubled the lead - and chased Scrivens - at the five-minute mark by tipping defenseman Connor Murphy's wrist shot from the blue line past the goaltender.
Edmonton halved the deficit 78 seconds later, when Schultz's slap-pass attempt deflected off B.J. Crombeen's stick and in, but Yandle restored the two-goal advantage 7:54 into the second with a shot from the left circle. Gormley extended the lead at 4:07 of the third with a shot from the left point that caromed in off Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom's skate and Gagner made it 5-1 just 13 seconds later by deflecting another left-point shot by Gormley past Fasth.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Each of Arizona's last three victories, four of its last five and five of its 12 on the season have come against Edmonton. ... The Coyotes improved to 4-9-3 over their last 16 games with just their second regulation victory in that span. ... Gormley was recalled from Portland of the American Hockey League on Monday and appeared in his first game for Arizona since Nov. 16, when he scored his first career goal - also against Edmonton.