Sharks feed on reeling Oilers.
San Jose was a perfect three-forthree with man advantage
The Edmonton Oilers were looking for reparation, but it was as improbable as it sounded, given their disparity with the San Jose Sharks.
The Sharks had already secured a playoff spot in the Western Conference for the 10th straight year, while the 29th-place Oilers were coming off two lamentable losses, including Saturday’s 8-1 shellacking by the Calgary Flames.
The Oilers were no match for the San Jose power play, which converted each of its opportunities for the first time this season to fashion a 5-2 victory Tuesday at Rexall Place.
“The biggest thing was the power play. We talked about it coming in,” said Oilers winger Jordan Eberle. “We had to be disciplined and had to have a good PK (penalty kill), yet they just capitalized.
“What did they go? Threefor-three? That could kill anybody.”
The Oilers took an early 1-0 lead and played a solid opening period, but six minutes into the second period, Joe Pavelski, beat Ben Scrivens with a power-play rebound.
Pavelski ended up with his third had trick of the season, and third since Jan. 18, with another power-play marker and an even-strength goal.
He didn’t have a shot on net the last time the teams met on Jan. 29, when Edmonton goalie Ben Scrivens turned away a jaw-dropping 59 shots.
“You can’t give a team like that chances on the power play, because they have guys who will make you pay— and they did tonight,” Scrivens said on Tuesday after facing 34 shots.
Edmonton has lost its last three games, getting outscored 16-1 after opening the scoring each time.
“In the end, special teams was the difference in the game,” said David Perron, who scored the game’s first goal and was later denied by a Antti Niemi toe save.
“Five-on-five, we were right there with them.”
San Jose arrived in Edmonton with the 23rd-ranked power play in the NHL. All three of the Oilers’ penalties were holding calls.
“I thought we outplayed them in the first, then in the second there’s a couple of PKs and they score on both. That really kills you, especially when it’s bang, bang and in the net,” said Eberle. “Before you know it, you’re down 3-1, then 4-1 and 5-1. That just deflates you.”
Patrick Marleau snapped in his 31st of the season to make the score 2-1 while Marty Havlat, rounded out the scoring with an evenstrength wrist shot late in the second period.
Perron zigged and zagged through the Sharks’ defensive coverage after picking up a pass from Taylor Hall to score his 26th goal of the season. Hall scored his 25th at 14:56 of the third period.
“They almost took the game to us, they were tilting the ice pretty good,” said Perron. “I think we were 10, 12 shots behind, but we were able to get the shots up to 30. That was encouraging.
“But they went three-forthree on the power play and we went 0-for-whatever it was. Special teams had to be better.”
The Oilers, who had just one shot on net in the first 10 minutes of the second period, were 0-for-two on the power play.
“I thought we had a great first period,” said head coach Dallas Eakins, who didn’t like the holding calls, but admitted that the onus was still on the team to kill the penalties.
In the previous five games, the Oilers killed off all but one of 17 power plays they faced.
“You could argue who the better team five-on-five was tonight ... When your team is playing like that five-onfive, you don’t want to see a penalty either way. It was one of those nights. We came up short on the PK.”