Oilers face Shark threat in San José

Edmonton Oilers vs San José Sharks 6-2 (2-0, 4-2, 0-0)

The Oilers went with Jonas Hiller in net for the second consecutive game, relying on in-form Hiller to keep his good run up. The Sharks were 5th with 20-10-5 for 45 points before this one.

Edmonton came out looking for blood and Nolan Yonkman found it in an extended fight with Doug Murray, which the former arguably took on a technical knockout. Whether related to the outcome, the Oilers took it upon themselves to win more and more of the battles around the boards and nets - leading O'Sullivan to set up Cogliano for his 4th goal in 3 games. Edmonton did not relent, and Dustin Penner found the net again for the visitors.

The emergence of the gritty geriatrics line early in the second enabled the Sharks to get one back, with Jamal Mayers slipping the puck by Hiller. Perhaps due to overzealous forechecking, perhaps due to forgetting the concepts and rules of the game, the same line of Mayers, Primeau, Johnson all took penalties within the next eight minutes, two of which were converted into power play goals by Edmonton. After a rocket shot from Heatley that ended up in the back of the net, Andrew Cogliano scored his second, maybe as a response to the trade speculations involving his name that have popped up lately.

The Oilers' offensive explosion had shook the Sharks, cracked their resolve and when the home team looked broken coming out in the third, Edmonton seemed content to let them retreat and regroup. The merciful, or incompetent, Oilers forwards may have deserved retaliation for their failure to take advantage of the Sharks' resignation, but nothing came of the period.

Post game: Both the first and second lines had solid offensive nights, Jonas Hiller faced just 21 shots, while the Oilers played a very solid overall game. They found many ways to the net in this one, exploring various options to hurt their opponents.



Scoreboard
1st Period:
EDM - Cogliano (O'Sullivan, Gilbert)
EDM - Penner (Babchuk, Gagner)

2nd Period:
SJS - Mayers (Primeau, Johnson)
EDM - Moore (Penner, Grebeshkov) PP
EDM - Hemsky (Babchuk, Visnovsky) PP
EDM - O'Sullivan (Cogliano)
SJS - Heatley (Boyle, Thornton) PP
EDM - Cogliano (Laich, O'Sullivan)

3rd Period:
-


Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

Lines:
Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
Cogliano - Laich - O'Sullivan
Axelsson - Krysanov - Moore
Moreau - Falardeau - Stone

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Yonkman

Hiller
(Khabibulin)