Gerber's 22 saves lead Oilers past Sens

Martin Gerber saw to it that his return to Canada's capital city was a triumphant one Monday night.

Gerber, making his second straight start for the Edmonton Oilers since being recalled from Oklahoma City of the American Hockey League made 22 saves against his former team and helped the Oilers rally for a 4-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place.

"It's definitely nice to have this one," Gerber said. "It's always emotional to play somewhere you've been around for a while and it was really great to see the guys out there compete and, for most of the game, we had a good game."

Andrew Cogliano and Gilbert Brule sparked the Oilers with a goal and an assist apiece in the third period. Cogliano broke a 1-1 tie less than five minutes into the period and then set up Brule as Edmonton got its three-game road trip through eastern Canada off to a winning start.

Tom Gilbert and Taylor Hall also scored for the Oilers (7-12-4), who have won two of their past three games. Dustin Penner chipped in with two assists.

"He's obviously played here and this is a big game for him," Cogliano said of Gerber. "The games that he's been in, we've produced well in front of him. He was in the game all game, and we came out in the third and got a couple of goals, which was nice."

Nick Foligno scored the lone goal for the Sens, his first of the season. Brian Elliott stopped 21 shots for Ottawa (11-13-1), which lost for the third time in the past four games and has just two wins in its last eight.

In the past 10 games, the Senators have managed to score more than two goals just twice and, consequently, they've managed to win only three of those contests.

"We came out pretty strong and scored the first goal, that's what you want to do ahead of the game," Elliott said. "But it kind of looked like we got into a lull there then we took a bunch of penalties in the second period and we got tired-out killing all of those.

"It's not the kind of effort we want on any given night and they kept coming and they took their chances and scored."

Foligno's goal ended a personal 25-game drought dating back to last season, and he needed a bit of help. He cut in on Gerber after picking up Chris Neil's dump-in and had his backhand attempt denied, but Ladislav Smid accidentally kicked the puck into his own net.

Edmonton gave up a shorthanded breakaway to Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson in the second period, but Gerber's stop provided a spark that lead to Gilbert's game-tying goal, as he took a pass from Sam Gagner near the top of the faceoff circle and ripped a shot past Elliott for a power-play tally. It was Gilbert's fourth goal of the season.

At the 4:19 mark of the third, Cogliano deflected Brule's point shot through Elliott.

A little more than eight minutes later, Brule converted Cogliano's cross-crease pass to make it 3-1 before Hall scored with Elliott pulled for an extra attacker at 18:05.

"The turning point is really when I miss my breakaway shorthanded, they come down and score and get back in the game," Alfredsson said. "If I score there, we win the game and it changed everything."

Material from wire services and team media was used in this report.