Finally, some light at the end of the Edmonton Oilers' tunnel.

It has been a long and often frustrating start to the season for a club that began the year with such high expectations. A brutal schedule (18 of their first 26 were on the road), an overpopulation problem in net (three goalies on the roster since September) and scoring slumps all over the place made for some very troubled waters.

But three solid wins in a row have lifted Edmonton into a share of eighth place and restored their confidence in themselves and there season.

"This was a lot of the things we kind of anticipated at the start of the year," said head coach Craig MacTavish, after five different players scored in a convincing win over Nashville Sunday night. "Lots of skill, lots of puck movement. A pretty good game; one of our better efforts of the year. That's the type of game we thought we'd see more of.

"The one thing that this taught me is that it's never a certainty. The development of your team is never a certainty. It always takes time to get new players into a system. Not everybody is going to be gelling all the time. It has taken a considerable amount of time but we're starting to move in a really positive direction."

They'll try to make it four in a row Tuesday against the slumping Ottawa Senators.

OILERS 5, NASHVILLE 2: The Oilers, who've been searching for balanced scoring all year, finally got it in a win over the Predators. Five different players found the net in their latest win, including Erik Cole, Andrew Cogliano and Sam Gagner, who scored three goals in 2:16 in the third period to break open a 2-2 tie.