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McLellan gets last
laugh Oilers drop Sharks in OT for their new head
coach
The skid has reached 5 games. The on-again,
off-again Sharks continued to slide with another loss on Wednesday night. Only
now, the Sharks are losing to teams they should be wiping the floor with. The
upstart Edmonton Oilers forced the Sharks to overtime, then took advantage of a
San Jose turnover in the extra frame to cash in on a 4-3 win. Taylor Hall
capped a mad rush up the ice with a tip in off a Leon Draisaitl feed to beat
Martin Jones and the Sharks for their 6th straight home win.
All the
talk leading up to the game was focused on former Sharks head coach Todd
McLellan's first crack at his former team. In typical McLellan fashion, he
downplayed the game, but it had to be sweet victory for the Oilers new bench
boss.
The Sharks struggled to generate much of a push against their
former coach's team early in the contest. Games on back to back nights seemed
to take a toll on the Sharks through the first 40 minutes. They slogged through
the first two periods with few scoring chances and seemed resolved to getting
to the 3rd period by keeping the game close.
They did that for the
most part, with the exception of a miscue 6:22 into the 2nd period. Draisaitl
and Teddy Purcell teamed up to convert on a San Jose breakdown during a line
change. Defenseman Paul Martin failed to read the Oilers attack, keying on a
skater that was immaterial to the play. With the Sharks minus defenseman on the
right side of the ice, Draisaitl scooped up a Purcell feed an raced in on Jones
and snapped a shot past the Sharks goaltender for the 1-0 lead.
San
Jose found their legs in the 3rd period, minus Log Couture who missed a good
chunk of the 2nd period and did not return for the final 20 minute block of
time. The Sharks only revealed that Couture was under observation during the
3rd period, but would not elaborate beyond that.
Back on the ice, San
Jose knotted the game at 1-1, when Justin Baun fired a shot from the slot 4
minutes into the period. It was the Shark defenseman's 1st goal of the season.
Jordan Eberle put the Oilers back on top less than 5 minutes later
with a wicked backhand shot from the bottom of the right circle that caught
Jones by surprise. Eberle had a Sharks defenseman draped all over him, but he
was able to lift his shot from 15 feet for his 6th goal of the season.
Patrick Marleau deposited his 11th goal of the season on a pretty tap-in from
just outside the left post after Braun led an odd-man rush up ice. Tomas Hertl
sent a long pass through the slot from the top of the right circle after Braun
led an odd-man rush up the ice.
Joe Pavelski make it a 3-2 Sharks lead
with 7:23 left in regulation by redirecting a Joonas Donskoi pass out of the
left corner. The Sharks captain was lurking in front of the net, and appeared
to redirect the puck with his skate past Oilers goaltender Anders Nilsson for
his 13th goal of the season.
The three goals should have been enough to help the
Sharks snap their losing streak, but the Oilers regrouped and pushed the game
to overtime, when Iiro Pakarinen sent a shot from the left point that kicked
off a leg in traffic to beat Jones. Braun was trying to stick with Hall in
front of the net, but ended up screening his goaltender to assist with the
equalizer.
In the overtime period, Joe Thornton got a little too
nonchalant with the puck in the Oilers zone, allowing Draisaitl to strip him
before racing up ice. The Oilers bolted up the right wing, and slid a pass to
the front of the net as Brent Burns tried to block the pass by dropping to the
ice and sliding toward the end boards. Draisaitl move the puck around Burns,
hitting Hall with a perfect pass for the bang-bang tip-in.
And just
like that, the Sharks were looking at a 5-game losing streak. The Sharks return
home to play Minnesota on Saturday, then jump back on a plane for a grueling
trip through Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Sharks
could be looking up at the rest of the conference by the end of the month if
they continue to play like they did the past five games.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
SJ |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
EDM |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
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2nd period - 1, EDM,
Draisaitl 9 (Purcell, Hall), 6:22. |
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3rd period - 2, SJ,
Braun 1 (Marleau, Ward), 3:56. 3, EDM, Eberle 6 (Khaira, Nugent-Hopkins), 8:21.
4, SJ, Marleau 11 (), 11:07. 5, SJ, Pavelski (Donskoi, Burns), 12:37. 6, EDM,
Pakarinen 4 (), 15:23. |
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Overtime - 7, EDM, Hall
12 (Draisaitl), 3:59. |
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1st period - Khaira, EDM
(hooking), 6:55; Thornton, SJ (tripping), 10:11; Dillon, SJ (fighting major),
19:33; Khaira, EDM (fighting major), 19:33. |
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2nd period - Brown, SJ
(fighting major), 8:05; Gazdic, EDM (fighting, major), 8:05; Nurse, EDM (delay
of game - puck over glass), 8:12. |
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3rd period - Hall, EDM
(delay of game - puck over glass), 16:07. |
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Shots |
Saves |
SJ - Jones |
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EDM - Nilsson |
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Referees: , .
Linesmen: , . |
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