EDMONTON, Alberta - Arizona goaltender Mike Smith looked like he'd never been gone.

In his first game back after missing three months with a sports hernia injury, Smith backstopped the Coyotes to a 4-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers Saturday at Rexall Place.

At the other end of the ice, Antoine Vermette had two goals and an assist in the win.

Smith, who needed surgery to repair his injury, had been practicing hard for a couple of weeks and finally declared himself ready to play. And he was, delivering the win for Arizona on a night when it was outshot 44-29.

"It was nice to get back out there obviously," Smith said. "I haven't played in a long time and I couldn't draw it up much better than that. I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people.

"It's been frustrating at times and my family and friends have been very supportive. Those people were very important through a time that wasn't fun to go through."

It was the perfect launching pad for a rusty goalie, given that the Coyotes are 18-0-4 in their last 22 games against the Oilers, and Smith is 12-1-1 lifetime against them. But he did have to work for it.

With the Coyotes a little sluggish after playing Friday night in Calgary, Edmonton applied some serious early pressure. They outshot Arizona 12-5 in the first period, but Smith held the fort until his teammates got their legs under them.

"Mike Smith had a good look at a lot of shots," said Oilers forward Mark Letestu, adding the Oilers just weren't forceful enough around the net. "Something was missing. I thought we did a good job generating shots but the second and third opportunities, the rebounds, the screens, there wasn't enough of them, especially when he's playing like that."

When the Coyotes found their rhythm, Viktor Tikhonov scored on a first period deflection and Vermette and Alex Tanguay added singles in the second period to give the visitors a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes.

Vermette added another in the third.

"It was a tough turnaround last night from Calgary and we knew the goaltender had to be good for us tonight," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "He was anxious to come back. Yesterday he came to me and said I think I can play tomorrow.

"On a tough turnaround, we put him in a tough situation and he reacted and played very, very well."

Vermette, meanwhile, has five points in his last two games and nine points in his last five.

"I think it's just been clicking with my new linemates and I'm finding the areas a little better," he said. "It's being going pretty well, so hopefully, it'll keep going that way."

Edmonton pressed hard again in the third, but Smith stopped a Taylor Hall breakaway and 16 other shots to close out the win.

Oilers coach Todd McLellan lit into his team after the loss, believing they should have found a way to beat a team playing its second game in 24 hours, minus its best defenseman (Oliver Ekman-Larsson) and starting a goalie who hadn't played in three months.

"Reckless pinches, no coverage, we gave up a breakaway on our power play where (Martin) Hanzal walked in all by himself," he began. "We took a slashing minor to negate a power play, we shot the puck out of the ice surface on a penalty kill from one end to the other when we had all the time in the world.

"We actually had seven guys on the ice at one point and got away with that. It's a formula for failure. It's been going on and has proven here over the years to be a formula for failure. We just proved it again tonight. It's kind of insanity isn't it? When you keep hitting you head against a wall and getting the same result."

The Oilers continued their struggles at home. They are 4-2-1 in their last seven road games and 1-6-0 in their last seven home games.

The Oilers remain last in the Western Conference at 27-37-7 while the Coyotes are 30-32-7.

NOTES: Oilers C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returned to the lineup Saturday after missing nearly two months with a broken hand. No sooner did he return than the Oilers lost two more players to injury: LW Matt Hendricks, who is day to day with shoulder trouble and D Adam Pardy, who is out two weeks with an undisclosed injury. ... Edmonton is second in the NHL in man games lost to injury with 300 games. ... Coyotes G Mike Smith had been out since Dec. 8 with a core muscle injury. ... The Coyotes are still without D Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who's been out three games with an undisclosed injury. ... The Coyotes came into the game with a 17-0-4 record in their last 21 games against the Oilers. ... The Oilers are 25th in the NHL in faceoff winning percentage (49.1). Arizona is first (54.1).