The winning formula

MONTREAL - It's becoming a classic case of misrepresentation.

Everywhere the Edmonton Oilers go these days, fans expect to see this fast-paced offensive juggernaut. But instead of the Harlem Globetrotters, they get a Western Canadian version of Jacques Lemaire's New Jersey Devils, circa 1998.

It happened again inside Montreal's Bell Centre on Tuesday night, where the Oilers were awarded just 14 shots on net -- though that stat was questionable all night -- in a 3-1 win over the Canadiens that was anything but Flash vs. Dash.

"That's been the story for us all season, our defensive play," said foward Jordan Eberle, whose top line went scoreless and minus-1 for Edmonton. "Everyone expects us to be high-scoring and offensive, but what's been winning us games is our goaltending and our defensive play.

Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor Hall -- the three players who have been the talk of the town for the past 48 hours -- did manage one dominant shift right when the Oilers needed it the most.

With six minutes to play they hemmed the Habs into their own zone for 50 seconds, stealing every ounce of momentum in the game, and setting the table for Tom Gilbert's game-winner, a long shot that ricocheted past Carey Price off the foot of Josh Gorges.

"It wasn't our best night," Eberle admitted. "Even on the shift we had a good offensive attack, we didn't get anything to the net. We have to be better."

Thanks to Nikolai Khabibulin, the reborn Russian netminder who has carried this Oilers team on his back for parts of this young season, OK was good enough for Edmonton, who answered a Saturday loss with their seventh win in their last eight games.

"I thought that was a game we could have won pretty easily," said Price, who had a stellar performance, beaten only on Ryan Jones' shorthanded breakaway and the Gorges deflection, before watching Ryan Smyth's empty-netter from the bench. "I thought we were all over them pretty much the whole game. They got that one break there at the end (Gilbert's goal), and that was the difference.

"(The Habs defence) played great, it could easily have gone the other way. Khabby played well for them; he kept them in the whole game. It's a tough break for us."

For a 30th place team in each of the past two seasons, learning how to win includes many steps along the way. Sometimes you win at your best, while others -- like on this night -- you win despite yourselves.

But don't ask how. Ask the Edmonton Oilers how many points they have as they're sitting atop the Northwest Division, with a record of 9-3-2.

This team didn't earn its 20th point until Dec. 1 last season, ironically with a win in this same Bell Centre. Khabibulin had all of 10 wins last season. He has seven now, along with some of the best numbers in the league.

Two more Khabibulin stats, courtesy Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette: At the 15-minute mark, he passed the 43,000 NHL career minutes threshold; And, Montreal's 17th shot, a long slapper by Petteri Nokelainen with 10 seconds left in the second period, was the 21,000th shot he's faced in his career.

When's the last time he felt this good?

"Maybe in the playoffs, the last year that I played for Chicago (in 2009),"said the 38-year-old who stopped 28 of 29 shots Tuesday. "When you don't win many games, obviously time doesn't go as fast. Right now, time flies."

The third period didn't fly by for Oilers coach Tom Renney, his team clinging to a 1-0 edge and barely touching the puck.

"We spent too much time in the penalty box, didn't think the game well," Renney said. "And then as attrition takes its toll, sometimes your brain takes a cab."

Edmonton took six penalties. The difference this year? They killed them all, a nice improvement for a penalty kill ranked 29th and 30th in the NHL the last two seasons.

"You need your goaltender to be your best penalty killer, and he made some phenomenal saves for us," Gilbert said. "Our personnel, there are guys who will sacrifice anything to get that 'W' -- from first line to fourth."

"That's one of the poorer performances we've had in front of (Khabibulin)," Renney said. "We kind of stole one here, but, you find ways to win. He certainly is giving us a lot of confidence. Hopefully we find a way to pay that back."

Mark Spector is the senior columnist on sportsnet.ca