Oilers rally to beat Sharks 5-4 in OT
EDMONTON, Alberta -- Zach Hyman scored his career-high 27th goal of the season 1:37 into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers rallied to beat the San Jose Sharks 5-4 on Thursday night.
Ryan McLeod, Kailer Yamamoto, Derek Ryan and Philip Broberg also scored for the Oilers (48-27-6) who tied a franchise record for consecutive home games with a point, going 13-0-1 in their last 14 contests at Rogers Place.
"It was one of those ones where we knew we weren't fully on the top of our game," said defenseman Brett Kulak, who assisted on the overtime goal. "But we knew we could trust our process and go back to the simple things and keep chipping away at it. We have a lot of offense, we don't really have an issue scoring goals. We just kind of stuck with it and ended up getting it done."
Edmonton has also won six of its last seven overall.
"Our players said the right things on the bench, some small corrections were made on the ice and we started to skate better in the second period," said Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft, who has a 25-9-3 record.
Noah Gregor had two goals, and Scott Reedy and Nick Bonino also scored for the Sharks (32-36-13), who have lost two in a row as they wind down a season in which they missed the playoffs.
"It was one of our better games offensively on the cycle, generating chances; there were some positives out of this game," Sharks head coach Bob Boughner said. "But you get into three-on-three, that's a recipe for disaster against Edmonton. We had a couple of chances, but you have to play an almost perfect overtime to get this thing to a shootout."
The Oilers will face the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs.
San Jose got off to a quick start, taking advantage of a giveaway by Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen. Gregor sent a wrist shot into the net 2:42 into the game.
Then, 26 seconds later, Gregor scored again, banking a shot off defender Evan Bouchard's skate for his eighth of the season.
Edmonton got back into the game midway through the period, despite being outshot 26-13 at that point. Sharks goalie James Reimer made a save on a power-play blast by Bouchard, but McLeod scored on the rebound for his ninth of the season.
The Oilers tied the game with seven minutes to play in the middle frame as Leon Draisaitl made a backhand spin pass to Yamamoto, who beat Reimer for his career-best 20th of the season.
The Sharks regained the lead just a few minutes later on a power play as Reedy tipped in a shot by Brent Burns.
Edmonton made it 3-3 midway through the third period as a Tyson Barrie shot was tipped by Ryan and then caromed off defender Nicolas Meloche and into the net.
San Jose took control yet again 63 seconds later, when Bonino took a pass in the slot and beat Koskinen with a quick shot for his 16th.
However, Edmonton came flying back just a minute after as Broberg crept in from the point and pulled the trigger on a pass from NHL points leader Connor McDavid for his first career NHL goal, sending the game into overtime.
NOTES: Forward Jesse Puljujarvi returned for the Oilers after missing the last three games with an illness. Defenseman Darnell Nurse remained out with a lower-body injury, with Broberg coming up from the AHL and getting into the lineup. … Out for the Sharks were Adin Hill (lower body), Kevin Labanc (shoulder), John Leonard (lower body), Erik Karlsson (lower body) and Radim Simek (upper body).
UP NEXT
San Jose: At Seattle Kraken on Friday.
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