Skinner seeks revenge against friendly rival; Oilers try to move on from blown leads

A pair of faces familiar to both local hockey fans and each other will work the nets at Rogers Place in Edmonton Tuesday night, as Stuart Skinner looks to even his head-to-head matchup against Carter Hart.

Both 24-year-old goalies were born in the Alberta capital, played bantam against each other and later matched up as juniors in the Western Hockey League.

Hart and his Philadelphia Flyers beat Skinner and the Oilers 2-1 in a shootout on Jan. 9, their first ever meeting in the NHL.

Skinner said Hart is a friend and offseason training partner but he wants to beat him.

"He got the best of me last game, so hopefully it's the other way tonight," Skinner said with a laugh.

"He's a hard worker, he's a great player. He's mentally strong and he's very motivated. He's somebody who you hang out with, you get inspired."

Hart beat Skinner to the NHL by two years, but the Oilers rookie was the first of the two to be named an All-Star when he made the team earlier this month.

"It's nice that we are friends because it keeps things a little lighter," Skinner said of the local rivalry.

"It was awesome to watch him at the NHL level and that also gives you motivation to know that I can play at his level, which means that I can play in the NHL too. And fate had it that we're both here now and I get to play against him tonight."

SUNDAY LOSS 'UTTERLY DISAPPOINTING'

As a whole, the Oilers are looking to bounce back after blowing 3-0 leads to both the New York Rangers on Friday and Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.

Head coach Jay Woodcroft called the latest 6-5 overtime loss "utterly disappointing."

"We know we can be better. Nobody is running away from that," he told reporters Tuesday.

Edmonton has grabbed points in 14 of its last 15 games but have lost four straight games.

After a 6-2 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens, shootout losses to Detroit and New York and the overtime loss to Colorado, the Oilers haven't won a game since Feb. 11 in Ottawa.

"I would say we haven't fired on all cylinders yet. We've had some good segments this year, some areas where we can be better and we're working on a daily basis to make sure we're ready for game 83," Woodcroft said, referring to the start of the playoffs.

The Oilers came into Tuesday just four points behind Pacific-Division-leading Las Vegas. Edmonton has not won a division championship in 36 years.

Forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said although the team is getting points in extra-time losses the players know they can be better at the end of games.

"We can still take some positives out of it. We put ourselves in good positions in both games, but yeah, obviously especially later in the season you gotta find a way to close out games," he told reporters.

"We didn't do that the last couple of nights so we gotta find a way to get some confidence back when we have a lead and play with some poise."

Defenceman Vincent Desharnais was recalled Tuesday from the Oilers AHL farm team in Bakersfield, Calif. The team won nine of 12 games with him in the lineup, before he was sent down for salary cap reasons last week.

The Oilers (30-19-8) faceoff against the Flyers (23-25-10) shortly after 7 p.m. MT.