Ryan’s first two goals secure wild win for Sharks
SHARKS 6, OILERS 4
SAN JOSE >> Bank the two points. Burn the tape.
The Sharks survived some wild momentum swings, a host of their own miscues and perhaps a bit of hubris Saturday night to pull out a desperately needed 6-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers at SAP Center.
Defenseman Joakim Ryan scored the first two goals of his NHL career, including the game-winner with 2:27 left in the third period, and Joe Pavelski added two goals and two assists as the Sharks ended a three-game home winless streak.
The win jumped the Sharks back into second place in the Pacific Division with 66 points, one ahead of Los Angeles and two ahead of both Anaheim and Calgary. The Sharks face the Ducks in Anaheim on Sunday.
“All of these points are so important that we had to go out there and win the game in the third,” Ryan said, “and that’s what we did.”
It was a way more dramatic finish than it had to be.
On their way to a rare laugher on home ice, the Sharks instead coughed up a three-goal lead in the second period and fell behind by one at the 1:21 mark of the third as Oilers defenseman Brandon Davidson scored his fifth of the season. Sharks forward Tomas Hertl got that goal back just 2:20 later to tie the score 4-4.
On the winner, Ryan, a 24-year-old rookie, jumped up into the play, took a pass from Timo Meier, picked up his own rebound after a shot from between the circles and tucked it past Oilers goalie Al Montoya for his second goal after going scoreless for 45 games.
“Definitely nice to get first one out of the way — 45 games in, you start to think about if it’s ever going to happen,” Ryan said. “When it went in, just relief and elation.”
The Sharks got goals from Ryan and Pavelski in the first 7:21 of the first period to take a 2-0 lead, then saw their fourth line take advantage of an Oilers turnover to take a 3-0 lead on Barclay Goodrow’s fifth goal of the season at the 2;30 mark of the second period.
With major assists from the Sharks, the Oilers stole the momentum and scored three unanswered goals of their own.
Perhaps with the Sharks feeling their oats, an errant pass from Mikkel Boedker to no one in particular to the Sharks’ blue line set up a breakaway for Zack Kassian, who couldn’t beat Sharks goalie Aaron Dell on his first shot but collected his own rebound to score at the 8:49 mark.
Just over five minutes later, Chris Tierney then had the puck stripped off his stick as he skated toward the Oilers net. Yohann Auvitu picked it up and sent a long pass off the boards to Kassian, who streaked in alone and scored with a backhand shot that slipped under Dell’s pads.
The comeback was completed at the 18:02 mark of the second, with Leon Draisaitl scoring his 15th of the season with 1:58 to go in the second.
“We got a little too comfortable, got a little too cute,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “We started playing a bit of pond hockey, some blind passes and some poor decisions as far as numbers go. Just pressing too much for another goal.”
It behooves the Sharks to capitalize on the chance to play teams that are well out of the playoff picture.
The Sharks host Arizona on Tuesday and Vancouver on Thursday, the first two games of a three-game homestand that wraps up with a game against the much-more formidable Dallas Stars.
Teams that make the playoffs typically beat the teams that don’t make the playoffs, and the Sharks have put points in the bank against non-contenders in recent weeks.
After Saturday, since the start of January, the Sharks are now 5-1-2 record against teams that are presently out of a playoff spot.
“It was kind of a weird game,” Sharks center Logan Couture said. “They tried to give it to us in the first. We tried to give it right back to them in the second. Seemed like no one wanted to win.”
• Forward Joel Ward said Saturday he’s optimistic he can return this season after his right shoulder was injured two days prior in a hard collision against the boards at SAP Center.
Ward had to leave Thursday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights after he absorbed a hard hit from Nate Schmidt in the second period. Although the shoulder remains stiff, Ward said he will not need surgery and that the injury started to feel better the next day.
Ward said he was “a little worried at first, for sure, but kind of woke up a lot better. Just get some treatment done again and hopefully get back in, hopefully soon, but I don’t know when.”
Jannik Hansen took Ward’s spot in the lineup as a winger on the Sharks’ fourth line Saturday.