Reimer, Sharks shut out Oilers

EDMONTON -- San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer will have fond memories of Rexall Place, which is in its final season.
Reimer made 31 saves for his first victory with the Sharks and first shutout of the season, a 3-0 win against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Reimer's last previous shutout, on Oct. 29, 2013, was also at Rexall Place, a 4-0 victory as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Reimer was acquired by the Sharks from the Maple Leafs on Feb. 27 and lost 4-2 to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday in his first start with San Jose.
"I just tried to be big and get to my spots and hope that the puck hits me. Luckily for me tonight, it did," Reimer said. "I semi-remember [the previous shutout], but it might have been a while ago. It's nice to get another one. These guys are a good team, they have a lot of skill. I thought we just played really well defensively as a team and took away a lot of their possible Grade-A scoring chances. I just had to hang in there, do my thing and pick up when the boys needed me."

Logan Couture scored two goals and Joe Pavelski had his team-high 31st for the Sharks (37-23-6), who moved within two points of the second-place Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division after back-to-back wins in Alberta. The Sharks defeated the Calgary Flames 2-1 in overtime on Monday.
"I thought the first five or six minutes of the game, we looked like we played last night; we turned some pucks over and were a little slow," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "From that point on, I thought we played a real solid road game. We got great goaltending from [Reimer] when we needed and it was a tidy game from my perspective. That's exactly what we needed; you're in a back-to-back situation and you know you're going to have to make some saves on the road and he did that for us."
Cam Talbot made 19 saves for the Oilers (26-36-7), who will move to a new arena next season.
Couture scored 1:33 into the first period to put the Sharks up 1-0. His initial shot from the left circle was stopped by Talbot, but the goaltender couldn't locate the puck, which landed between his feet. Couture raced in and banged it into the net.

Couture made it 2-0 at 15:50, 10 seconds into a tripping penalty to Oilers forward Jordan Eberle. Couture took a pass from defenseman Brent Burns at the top of right circle, walked in and snapped a high shot past Talbot for his 10th goal of the season.
It was Couture's 20th two-goal game in the NHL. He has never had a hat trick.
"I was trying to get the hat trick, it's never happened to me before in this League," Couture said. "It would be nice if that would happen sometimes soon."
Pavelski scored at 14:03 of the second period to give the Sharks a 3-0 lead, tipping a shot from defenseman Paul Martin past Talbot.

From there, the goaltenders took over. Forward Joonas Donskoi had an excellent opportunity to give the Sharks a four-goal lead when he took a pass from Couture in front, but Talbot was able to slide across and made an outstanding save.
Early in the third period, Talbot made consecutive saves on Dainius Zubrus and Chris Tierney, each of whom was set up in front. Reimer made an excellent blocker save on Adam Clendening later in the period, then stopped Pat Maroon from in close on a setup from Eberle.

"We had our offensive zone time, we played more in their end than ours, but they were able to score and we couldn't," Eberle said. "You're not going to win games if you don't score. We have to find a way to bear down on the chances we have."
Late in the in game, Oilers forward Matt Hendricks lost an edge and went into the boards awkwardly. He left and didn't return.
"It was a frustrating night, really, because I thought we had some really good chances in and around the net," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "Reimer made some good saves but we missed the net on some really good chances and I think that's a reflection on our game. We didn't have a lot of polish, we couldn't put two passes together. On 3-on-1s we were falling down. The first goal on Cam, he usually handles that. To a man, we weren't really polished. We couldn't find a combination of five players who were sharp at any given point."