GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Sharks 2

EDMONTON, AB - The Edmonton Oilers earned their sixth straight victory on home ice Thursday night with a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place.
Derick Brassard marked his debut in Orange & Blue with his first goal for the club that ultimately went down as the game-winner 6:49 into the third period. Kailer Yamamoto notched his seventh goal in eight games, while Leon Draisaitl recorded a pair of markers to reach 44 goals on the season.
The Oilers return to action on Saturday night in a massive Battle of Alberta down Highway 2 at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

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FIRST BLOOD

The Sharks worked a tic-tac-toe passing play to open the scoring when Tomas Hertl picked up a cross-ice pass from Timo Meier before sending it right back across to Erik Karlsson, who had the open net to put away his 10th of the season 1:08 into the second frame after Smith was left sprawled out in the Oilers crease.

BUST OUT THE YAMS (AGAIN)

Working for an equalizer on their first powerplay of the night, Duncan Keith sent a pass through the middle to Ryan McLeod to catch with speed and dart into the San Jose end before kicking it back to Yamamoto, who protected the puck with his 5-foot-8 frame from two Sharks and slid a backhand under Kappo Kahkonen for his 18th goal of the season and seventh goal in eight games. The 23-year-old now has seven goals and five assists in his last eight contests with another two-point night -- his fifth in his last seven games.

OIL DERICK

Brassard notched the game-winner and his first goal as a member of the Oilers when he tried to find Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at the back post before it deflected off the skate of a Sharks defender and into the net past a hapless Kahkonen just under seven minutes into the final frame. That's one way to mark your debut in Orange & Blue.

KASS ATTACK

As part of a 3:06 stretch of the second frame where the Oilers scored twice to take the lead, it was the hard work of Zack Kassian that created Leon Draisaitl's 43rd goal of the season.
Kassian dumped the puck in and separated Karlsson from the play before the German picked up the loose biscuit and placed it over the right pad of Kahkonen to put the Oilers ahead 2-1. It was an unassisted marker for Draisaitl, but we all know it was Kassian who made the play happen.

PARTING WORDS

Ben on the play of Hyman today against the Sharks:
"Good. I think he played really good."
Ben on his favourite Oilers players:
"McDavid and Draisaitl."
Hyman on what he can do to become Ben's favourite player:
"I think I need a little bit more time. I just got here, but I think Ben's picked two great guys and two great players. Just happy to be on stage with him."

Hyman on the Oilers persevering to earn big two points in the standings:
"Every point matters at this time of the year. I especially thought the two guys we brought on [Brassard and Kulak] were great too, and [Nugent-Hopkins] coming back. I think we're starting to see our team fully healthy with all the guys, and I thought it was awesome to get the win and keep building confidence moving forward."
Hyman on what a full healthy Oilers lineup looks like:
"I think you see a lot of depth. I think you see four lines contributing all 60 minutes, and we have two stellar netminders. Everybody contributing and just stacking points."

Smith on the Oilers deploying their strongest lineup of the season with three additions & returns [Brassard, Kulak & Nugent-Hopkins] to the lineup:
"Acquiring some people at the deadline there makes us a deeper team, and I think when you're making a playoff push, having people who can come into the lineup and play important minutes for our group is beneficial going into the most important games of the year. I think obviously something every team looks for is depth. We acquired some guys that have been in the playoffs before and played important roles on teams. Obviously getting guys back healthy just solidifies our lineup, so it's great to see guys like Nuge back and the two guys we got at the deadline played extremely well for us. I think we're playing with a lot of confidence in our system and doing things really well out there."
Smith on growing his game with three strong performances in a row since returning from injury as the season hits the important stretch:
"I feel like I'm getting better and better, to be honest. I felt like tonight I was pretty solid. I didn't like either goal, I got out of position a little bit, but I felt like my game was letting pucks come to me tonight and I've been feeling more comfortable every game that I've been in there. So the last few I've felt like my game's come along, and I want to be playing my best hockey at this time of year. I feel like it's trending in the right direction."

Coach Woodcroft's thoughts on the game as the Oilers closed out the victory after taking the lead:
"There was a lot of really good parts to our game tonight. We got contributions up and down our forward lines and D pairings. I thought we tried to play the game fast tonight, and that was noticeable. We got a good performance out of Mike Smith, and a team effort was able to spread the minutes out tonight. Good win for the team."
Coach Woodcroft on Nugent-Hopkins' first performance back from injury:
"For me, Nuge is a real key piece to what we have going on here. Having him in the lineup, he touches a lot of areas of the game and allows us when we play with three centres down the middle to have a really strong spine of our team. I just find when he's in the lineup, it leads to balance."
Coach Woodcroft on Brassard and Kulak's first games as Oilers:
"I think [Brassard] is a very heady or headsy-type player. he makes good plays with the puck. He doesn't force little plays, he actually has some poise in the offensive zone in order to find that open man. That line scored the goal in the third period that turned out to be the winning goal, but they made a lot of really good plays in the first two periods as well but they just didn't go in for them. I thought Jesse Puljujarvi got in on the forecheck, was physical, and added a size element to that line. I thought it was a good line for us."
"I thought [Kulak] played a good game. He's obviously a very good skater, helped our puck movement on the back end, and I jsut felt comfortable with him on the ice tonight."