Souray’s late power-play goal lifts Oilers

Sheldon Souray scored a power-play goal with 14:27 remaining, lifting the Edmonton Oilers past the struggling Phoenix Coyotes 3-1 on Monday night.

Ales Hemsky had a goal and assist and Shawn Horcoff added an empty-netter with 23.5 seconds left for the Oilers, who beat Phoenix for the seventh straight time. Edmonton also moved past Columbus and Anaheim into seventh place in the Western Conference.

Ed Jovanovski scored a power-play goal for the Coyotes, who lost their sixth straight at home and ninth in 10 games since the All-Star break. Phoenix has fallen from fifth place in the Western Conference to tied for 13th with St. Louis during that span.

Souray took a pass from Hemsky at the point and fired a wrist shot past Mikael Tellqvist to snap a 1-1 tie.

The Coyotes went on the power play with 2:33 remaining and pulled Tellqvist in favor of a sixth attacker with 1:40 left, but were unable to get set up in the Oilers’ zone for more than a few seconds at a time.

Dwayne Roloson made 28 saves for his third straight victory, catching most shots clean and allowing only a handful of rebound attempts along the way.

Hemsky broke a scoreless tie at 15:43 of the second period when he bounced a rebound above the right front of the crease off Tellqvist’s right skate for his team-leading 18th goal.

Eight seconds after Horcoff was sent off for running into Tellqvist and with 2.7 seconds left in the second period, Jovanovski’s slap shot from the left point bounced off Roloson’s right pad and trickled across the goal line to make it 1-1.

Both teams had shots ring off the posts during the second period. Robert Nilsson hit the right post with just over nine minutes left in the period for Edmonton and Phoenix’s Peter Mueller bounced a shot off the right post with 1:50 to go.

Tellqvist, making his first start since January 6, stopped 26 shots and fell to 6-5-1 in 12 starts.

Notes:@ Phoenix defenseman Kurt Sauer and center Martin Hanzal both returned to the Coyotes’ lineup. Sauer had missed 14 games with a broken foot, during which Phoenix went 4-10, and Hanzal missed the Coyotes’ past three games. … Before the game, the Coyotes reassigned Joel Perrault to San Antonio of the American Hockey League. Perrault had two goals, three points and four penalty minutes in seven games with Phoenix. … Hemsky has two goals and four assists in his last four games.