EDMONTON (CP) - Fernando Pisani and the Edmonton Oilers didn't play the role of gracious hosts Wednesday night.
Pisani had a goal and two assists as the Oilers earned a 5-2 win over a Columbus squad that played its second game in as many nights. The Blue Jackets earned a 3-2 shootout win in Vancouver on Tuesday.
"It was a big advantage sitting here for three days when you are getting a team that is coming off a back to back," said Oilers head coach Craig McTavish. "We've had it go the other way too.
`It was a big advantage for us and we had to take advantage of it. For the most part we did and I'm pretty happy with the way that we played."
The Oilers' second line of Pisani, Raffi Torres and Jarret Stoll had a good showing against Columbus. Torres had two goals while Stoll added two assists.
"Sometimes you don't get rewarded even if you are working hard," Pisani said. "It was good to see us get some secondary scoring tonight.
"It wasn't just the top line getting it done. It was nice to see. Hopefully we can build off this."
The Oilers (25-22-4) earned their second straight win to finish a five-game homestand with a 3-2 record and move to within four points of a playoff spot.
Columbus (21-26-5) suffered its first loss in five games.
"We came out flat but that's no excuse," said Blue Jackets forward Rick Nash. "They were clearly the better team tonight.
"They outshot us and out-chanced us. We need to be better."
Smyth and Petr Sykora had the other Edmonton goals.
David Vyborny and Fredrik Modin countered for Columbus.
Smyth opened the scoring at 3:31 of the first period on the power play. Columbus goalie Ty Conklin, a former Oiler, stopped Marc-Andre Bergeron's shot from the point but Smyth batted the rebound out of mid-air into the net.
The Oilers outshot Columbus 16-4 in the first.
"We knew they played (Tuesday) so we wanted to jump all over them," said Torres. "That start just seemed to carry through for the whole game."
Pisani helped put Edmonton ahead 2-0 just 22 seconds into the second. Pisani feathered a nice pass through the legs of a Columbus defenceman to Torres, who scored to earn his 100th career point as an on Oiler.
Columbus made it 2-1 at 6:03 on the power play, deflecting a shot by former Oiler Anson Carter from the point past Edmonton starter Jussi Markkanen.
But Sykora countered with a power-play goal at 11:57. Smyth took a pass in the crease and chipped it to Sykora, who scored just his third goal in 17 games.
Markkanen made a huge stick save on Modin with just over a minute left to keep the score 3-1 heading into the third.
Columbus cut its deficit to 3-2 with Modin's power-play goal just 46 seconds into the third. But Edmonton restored its two-goal advantage at 5:41. Stoll raced to a puck behind the Columbus net and centred a pass to Torres, who beat Conklin for his second goal of the night.
Edmonton rounded out the scoring at 7:06 when Marty Reasoner set up Pisani.
The Oilers begin a two-game road trip in Vancouver on Thursday while the Blue Jackets head to Calgary to face the Flames on Friday.
NOTES: Markkanen was appearing in back-to-back games in the Oilers net for the first time since the sixth and seventh games of last year's Stanley Cup final . . . Conklin faced his former teammates for the first time . . . Columbus defenceman Bryan Berard played his first game of the season Wednesday, returning from a lower back injury that had seen him sidelined for the entire season to this point . . . Wednesday's game was the 60th consecutive regular-season sellout of 16,839 at Rexall Place, a streak dating back to November 2005.