Thornton ties Howe in Sharks win against Oilers

EDMONTON -- Joe Thornton had two assists to tie Gordie Howe for ninth most in NHL history (1,049), and the San Jose Sharks defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Kevin Labanc scored his first NHL hat trick, Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl each had a goal and an assist, and Aaron Dell made 21 saves for San Jose (33-16-7), which has won five games in a row and is 12-3-0 in its past 15.
"It's unbelievable. It's great, there are no words to describe it," Labanc said. "It's pretty cool that there was a couple of hats thrown out there. It was fun, it was a good game. Besides the hat trick, we got the two points and that was huge for us."
WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Oilers highlights]
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zack Kassian scored, and Cam Talbot made 26 saves for Edmonton (24-26-5), which has lost seven of its past eight games (1-5-2).
"We didn't give ourselves a chance," Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We turned it over so many times in the first period we didn't give ourselves a fighting chance. The game was over. When you turn it over that many times and you make casual plays like that, you give yourself no chance."
Labanc gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 10:39 of the first period after his shot from just inside the left circle redirected in off the skate of Oilers defenseman Kevin Gravel.
Kane made it 2-0 at 12:18, converting a cross-ice pass from Joonas Donskoi.

"I think we're starting to come together and we're feeling good about where our game is right now," Kane said. "Obviously, we want to continue to build."
Labanc scored a power-play goal at 6:10 of the second period to make it 3-0, but Nugent-Hopkins scored a power-play goal of his own to make it 3-1 at 12:00 when he collected a loose puck in the right circle and scored before Dell could get up off the ice.
Labanc completed the hat trick at 1:36 of the third period on a shot from the high slot to give the Sharks a 4-1 lead.
"Kevin is a kid that has worked on his game since I got here," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "He's learned from the Joe Thorntons and the Joe Pavelskis and the Brent Burns of the world to put in extra time, take care of your body. He's changed everything about his habits and is getting rewarded from that."
Hertl extended the lead to 5-1 at 4:24, and Kassian batted in a rebound out of the air at 14:03 to cut it to 5-2.

"For whatever reason, after the [mandatory five-day break following the 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend], our three road games have been really good, but we haven't been very good here at home," Oilers forward Milan Lucic said. "We have to figure out how to bring our road game back home with us. We just didn't have much energy in the first. We started to play when we got the [power play] in the second, but weren't able to carry it into the third."
San Jose has won three straight against Edmonton, outscoring them 19-8.
"It wasn't that long ago that Edmonton beat us in a [Stanley Cup Playoff] series (2017)," DeBoer said. "We're playing with a lot of confidence right now and our game is in a good place and the games against Edmonton, we managed to score some goals on them and it probably looks a little worse on the score sheet than they probably are."

They said it

"I think it's the commitment from the team. When, mentally, we want to engage and do it the right way, we've eliminated a lot of odd-man rushes and on top of it, our goalie has been playing really solid." -- Sharks center Joe Pavelski
"What makes a good playoff team is the consistency. Right now, we don't have it at all. We can play a good game against a potential playoff team like Minnesota (4-1 win Thursday) -- they are smart and strong -- then we come out here and have a bad start and play a bad game." -- Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom

Need to know

Oilers forward Ty Rattie left late in the first period after he was hit in the foot with a shot from Sharks defenseman Tim Heed. … Kane has scored 13 goals since Jan. 1, tying Nashville Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson for the most over that span. … Labanc entered the game with six goals in 55 games. … Hertl has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past five games. … Connor McDavid was held without a point for the eighth time this season. … Nugent-Hopkins extended his point streak to four games (one goal, five assists).

What's next

Sharks:At the Vancouver Canucks on Monday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SNP, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Oilers: At the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN)