EDMONTON, Alberta, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Taylor Hall started and finished a huge offensive showing Thursday and wound up with a hat trick to send Edmonton to an 8-2 rout of Colorado.
The Oilers became the last team in the Western Conference to reach 10 wins by jumping to a 3-0 lead and then holding off a brief Colorado charge.
Hall scored 3:44 into the game and added a goal with 2:18 to go in the first period. Ales Hemsky's power-play goal finished off the opening stanza, but Colorado cut its deficit to 3-2 midway through the second.
That was all the damage the Avalanche could do against Devan Dubnyk and Edmonton soon turned the game into a runaway.
David Perron restored a two-goal lead late in the second and Edmonton scored four times in the third, the last of those coming from Hall into an empty net with 11 seconds left in the game.
Dubnyk made 33 saves while Semyon Varlamov was roughed up for all eight goals on 28 shots.
