Oilers’ PK ultra-slick in Game 2 win
Short-handed tallies by Kassian and McDavid lift home side to victory
The Edmonton Oilers look like they’re starting to get the hang of this playoff thing.
Armed with one game’s worth of post-season experience and an entire season’s worth of desperation, the Oilers ran the San Jose Sharks out of town on Friday, dominating the defending Western Conference champions in a 2-0 Game 2 victory that echoed all the way back to Silicon Valley.
Knowing full well that a 2-0 series deficit would pretty much be the end of them (86 per cent of the teams that go up 2-0 go on to win the series), the Oilers showed San Jose that they can turn their game up a notch, too.
This was a tougher, stronger and much more determined team than the one that let a 2-0 lead turn into a humbling and crushing defeat in Game 1.
They’re learning fast.
“For me that’s part of experiencing this as a team,” said head coach Todd McLellan, who got shorthanded goals from Zack Kassian and Connor McDavid and a shutout from Cam Talbot in evening the series 1-1.
“We’re experiencing this for the first time in a decade. Every win or loss teaches you a lesson.
“At this time of year there is always another good team that gets in your way so it’s not going to be handed to you, you have to go earn it.”
When they last met, the Sharks were outshooting Edmonton 32-9 over the final 40 minutes and overtime in Game 1.
This time the Oilers were in control for the entire night and it was the veteran, battle-hardened Sharks who spent much of the night on their heels.
After a scoreless first, Kassian scored short-handed 42 seconds into the second, going short side on Sharks goalie Martin Jones low on a breakaway to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead.
The Oilers really gained energy after that one, pressuring the Sharks, hitting everything that moved and doing to the Sharks exactly what the Sharks did to them in Game 1.
In short, they looked very much like that 103-point team that challenged for the division title in the regular season.
Kassian lead the charge. He was a one-man wrecking crew, destroying San Jose players at every opportunity. He took a long run at Brenden Dillon in the first period and steamrollered Logan Couture in the second.
By the end of the middle frame, the crowd was in full chant: “Kassi-an! Kas-si-an!”
And the Sharks were reeling. They didn’t get their first shot of the middle frame until the eightminute mark and their second until the 14-minute mark (both on power plays) as Edmonton seemed to get stronger by the shift.
Once again, the Oilers had a onegoal lead at the second intermission.
This time they wouldn’t let it go. They ran into penalty trouble again in this game, taking six more minors, but the penalty-kill units were stellar and McDavid’s shorthanded goal at 9:24 of the third sealed it for the Oilers.
And suddenly there is real optimism heading into San Jose.
Yes, the Oilers have lost homeice advantage, but they also saw that their best is good enough to win this series.
“We have to stick to what’s got us to this point and not get away from our identity and the team that we want to be,” said defenceman Darnell Nurse. “We’re a confident group.”
And they’re feeling it now.
“It’s good because you get one day break and you’re back at it again,” said Patrick Maroon. “We just have to keep doing the things that got us here.”
The Sharks couldn’t help but notice a difference in the Oilers, but they say it isn’t anything they didn’t expect, nor is it anything they can’t handle.
“I feel like every game is going to be ramped up more and more,” said San Jose’s Joel Ward. “We just have to worry about ourselves and what we’ve got going on, knowing our details and assignments. If you do that, most times things will take of themselves.”