After losing game one of their first round Stanley Cup Playoff series the Edmonton Oilers have reeled off two straight wins over the San Jose Sharks.
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The San Jose power play had four goals by game’s end, feasting on an Oilers team that’s been undisciplined from the start. Certainly Talbot does not bear sole responsibility for the loss because he had no appreciable defensive help. Even the struggling power play that had scored only once and allowed two short-handed goals in the first three games got into the action.
Game five is Thursday at Rogers Place. “I’ve had some time to let it go already”.
The Sharks continued to show signs of addressing their biggest shortcomings in games two and three, as the power-play woes also showed signs of life and finally punished the overly aggressive Edmonton fore-check. Also, the Sharks were able to move their shot total to 29. Will the Sharks keep up their newfound fire power or will the Oilers bounce back from a performance they likely want to forgot? “I thought we had a sense that there was no chance that we’re not coming out of this game without a win”. “We’ll have to take our game up a notch, starting in Game 4”. It’s why the Sharks have had such trouble scoring, outside of Cam Talbot.
“We need to find a way to score”, captain Joe Pavelski said.
“They play like they always play”, said Oilers coach Todd McClellan. Thornton has been skating in practice, and Sharks coach Peter DeBoer has said he expects Thornton to return at some point in the series.
The Sharks rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit in Game 1 of the Oilers series to win 3-2 in overtime, a contest that included the team converting one of six chances on the power play.
Marcus Sorensen scored his first playoff at the 9:46 mark of the second period, one of four goals the Sharks had in the second period to take a 6-0 lead. Sharks veteran centre Joe Thornton was back in the lineup for the first time this series, having recovered from an April 2 injury to his left knee that forced him to miss five games. “Just not much either way and so we just got in there inside and made a few plays tonight”. Pavelski and Couture each scored twice, Pavelski added an assist, Marleau had a goal and an assist, and Burns assisted on three others. Enter Kassian, who’s quickly gaining folk hero status after scoring the game-winning goals in a 2-0 victory in Game 2 on Friday and a 1-0 win in Sunday’s Game 3.
Logan Couture, fourth on the team with 25 goals, also hasn’t had a point after leading all players with 20 assists and 30 points in the postseason previous year when San Jose reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time. Making their first playoff appearance in a decade, the Oilers have 20-year-old Art Ross Trophy victor Connor McDavid. McDavid has a goal and an assist but has been effectively blanketed by the Sharks’ defence the last two games. “I wanted to play Game 1”.
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“It was pretty obvious it was something that needed to happen”, McLellan said. Although Couture is the Sharks’ best penalty killing forward, DeBoer kept him on the bench during two shorthanded situations in the latter stages of the third period.
