Eric Belanger didn't just shoot the puck into an opponent's net Tuesday night for the first time all season, he made it look easy, natural as you please.

Since it was just the second goal all year for the capable 34-year-old veteran two-way centre, rest assured the goals have not come easily in his first season with the Edmonton Oilers.

Which has been most unnatural for Belanger, not to mention an increasingly irksome burden.

Well, the burden lifted a little on Tuesday night when Belanger hammered a slapshot from the top rim of the right-wing circle that rocketed over the left shoulder of Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov during an Oilers' power play at 17: 37 of the first period to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead.

Belanger hadn't scored since a puck caromed off his leg for a goal in a 5-3 Oilers loss to Carolina back on Dec. 7. And while it's true NHLers will take the goals any which way they come, this was a no-doubt-about-it sort of goal in every way.

"I've had a lot of those chances all year and hopefully tonight it's the start of something," said Belanger, who had at least two other gilt-edged scoring chances for the Oilers in the first period not long before he finally cashed one in. "It was good to get a goal like that on a power play."

Belanger is the Oilers' best faceoff man and plays sound defence, so goal scoring is not necessarily his focus on a team that features young offensive stars like Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, among others.

Still, secondary scoring is key on any NHL team and it surely had not been coming from Belanger this year. He entered the game with a 57.7 per cent success rate on faceoffs, and a shooting percentage of 1.4 on 74 shots. At that rate, he'd need a whole lot more shots to lift his goal total into a zone of respectability.

"It was a big relief," Belanger said.

"The chances were there the last few games, I've been playing well, but it just grinds on you.

"You're trying to not think about it, but it's human nature. I've had success throughout my career scoring goals and I'd like getting on the board more often.

"But it's one of those things where it's a learning process. It will make me a better player down the road." It has been a lengthy NHL road al-ready for the 11-year veteran, who has had previous stints with the Los Angeles Kings, who drafted him in the fourth round of the 1996 Entry Draft, the Minnesota Wild, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers, Washington Capitals and Phoenix Coyotes, before he signed with Edmonton as a free agent last July 1.

Belanger has been a two-way centre the whole way, a 35-to 40-point man who can contribute 15 to 20 goals, year-in, year-out.

His career arc is not that of the offensive machine in junior being slot-ted into a two-way or checking role in the NHL. A hallmark of Belanger's career has been his reliability.

At every level, Belanger has been at least a double-digit scorer. And those digits, more often than not, were one and three.

Six times Belanger has rung up 13 goals in a season: once as a junior in Beauport in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League; twice as a member of the Kings, twice with the Wild, and last year with the Coyotes.

Then there was 2004-05, the NHL lockout years, when he potted 13 playing for Bolzano in Italy.

Also, in a 20-game playoff run with Beauport in 1995-96 Belanger got hot and scored - you guessed it - 13 goals, adding 14 assists for 27 points that spring.

So, that stat is both utterly in character for Belanger, clearly a triskadekaphile, not a triskadeka-phobe. And he'll need to get lucky or red hot down the stretch to hit 13 goals or more this season.

"That's the first time I heard that stat," Belanger said. "In the NHL, I know I've been over 13 goals in the last nine years.

"There's still time. I mean, who knows, if I can get hot here, I don't know. You don't know why it's happening but you have to stay positive and you have to believe in your abilities that you can get the job done.

"That's where I'm at." "The last couple of games, tonight and in Vancouver, I felt that when I'm counted on, when I'm playing some good minutes and I'm involved in every aspect of the game, that's where I have success," Belanger said. "If your confidence is there and you're feeling good about your game, the coach has confidence in you and he puts you in those situations.

"It makes a big difference and I felt the last few games it was that way. I just want to keep grabbing onto it." His teammates, looking to finish the final 32 games of the season with some momentum, want him to, as well.

jmackinnon@edmontonjournal.com