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McLellan gets last laugh
Oilers drop Sharks in OT for their new head coach
12/9/15 - By Mike Lee -

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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Scoring
1 2 3 OT T
SJ 0 0 3 0 3
EDM 0 1 2 1 4
1st period - None.
2nd period - 1, EDM, Draisaitl 9 (Purcell, Hall), 6:22.
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.
Overtime - 7, EDM, Hall 12 (Draisaitl), 3:59.
Penalties
1st period - Khaira, EDM (hooking), 6:55; Thornton, SJ (tripping), 10:11; Dillon, SJ (fighting major), 19:33; Khaira, EDM (fighting major), 19:33.
2nd period - Brown, SJ (fighting major), 8:05; Gazdic, EDM (fighting, major), 8:05; Nurse, EDM (delay of game - puck over glass), 8:12.
3rd period - Hall, EDM (delay of game - puck over glass), 16:07.
Goaltending
Shots Saves
SJ - Jones
EDM - Nilsson
Shots On Goal
1 2 3 OT T
SJ
EDM
Power Play Conversion
SJ 0 of 3
EDM 0 of 1
3 Stars of the Game
Attendance
xxx
Officials
Referees: , . Linesmen: , .
Holiday Gifts at BustedTees

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