GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Sharks 3

EDMONTON, AB – Sinking the Sharks with a full team effort.

The Edmonton Oilers came together after the loss of Leon Draisaitl for the rest of the regular season on Tuesday by having 13 different players contribute points in a 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place, including Max Jones' game-winner in the third period to help secure them two huge points in the Pacific Division playoff race.

"It was really nice to get that," Jones said. "It just happened for me tonight, and I'm really glad that we got that win. We knew that it was a big one, so I'm really glad that I could help contribute."

Forward Adam Henrique was the lone Oilers skater to record multiple points after setting up Vasily Podkolzin's first-period tally that made it 3-1 for the hosts before his rebound in the third was put home by Jones, giving Edmonton a 4-3 lead after San Jose fought their way back to tie it in the middle frame.

"It's big," Henrique said. "No one guy is going to replace [Draisaitl's] spot, so that's something that collectively we're going to have to do from here right to the end of the season and see where that takes us. So I thought tonight we did a good job responding at times throughout the game, and chipping in like that offensively is big."

Connor Murphy scored his first goal in Blue & Orange during the opening frame, along with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins recording his 18th goal on the power play after Dmitry Orlov opened the scoring for the Sharks 7:24 into regulation to give them an early lead.

Zach Hyman provided insurance with his 29th goal of the campaign before the midway mark of the third, while netminder Connor Ingram picked up his 50th career victory by making 27 saves in the win.

The Oilers will continue their four-game homestand on Pride Night this Thursday at Rogers Place in a rematch of the 2024 & 2025 Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers.

FIRST PERIOD

After giving up the game's first goal to the Sharks, the Oilers put together a terrific response by scoring three times in 4:16 of the first period to enter the intermission with a 3-1 lead over their Pacific Division rivals.

Both sides couldn't convert on their first chances with the man advantage before an odd-man rush for the Oilers turned into a three-on-one the other way for the Sharks after Jason Dickinson had a pass picked off in the neutral zone, leading defenceman Dmitry Orlov putting away a back-door pass from Alex Wennberg for the 1-0 advantage.

Another power play for the Oilers less than two minutes after they fell behind resulted to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins answering back on the 10-minute mark with his 18th goal of the season, and his first goal since the birth of his second son Graham this past weekend.

A lost stick for Barclay Goodrow in the slot when trying to defend Connor McDavid allowed space for the captain to thread a pass through to the right circle, where from Leon Draisaitl's regular spot, No. 93 was able to blast a one-timer inside the post.

The goal was Nugent-Hopkins' 799th career point, leaving him one shy of the 800-point plateau, and two goals away from his seventh 20-goal season for the Oilers.

Just 1:15 later, Connor Murphy took a shot from distance that found its way through traffic for his first Oilers goal since being acquired from the Blackhawks at the Deadline.

"There were a lot of bodies around the net," Murphy said. "You just want to wait as long as you can to let the screens filter around the net, and then find either side of the net that's open to hit with. You just hope it finds a way in because usually the goalie isn't seeing it."

It was the 32-year-old's fifth goal of the season to leave him two goals off his career high of seven in 2022-23, and his first since Feb. 2, which also came against the Sharks.

Before the intermission, there was still time for the Oilers and Vasily Podkolzin to increase the lead to 3-1 after Adam Henrique poked it into the path of the Russian to put it off the far post and in for his 16th goal of the season with 5:42 left in the period.

SECOND PERIOD

The shots were 15-12 in favour of the Sharks in a bounce-back period from the visitors, who scored twice through Pavol Regenda and Kiefer Sherwood to tie things up at 3-3 after 40 minutes at Rogers Place.

Connor Ingram made some great saves in the middle frame for the Oilers, but there was nothing he could do 8:17 into the period when Regenda put the perfect deflection on Mario Ferraro's waist-high shot from the point to beat him over the left pad and make it a one-goal game.

Under seven minutes later, an unfortunate bounce at the blueline for Connor Murphy sprung Sherwood on a breakaway that he converted with a glove-side finish to tie things up 3-3 going into the third period.

"You could tell that we were pretty frustrated with ourselves," Murphy said. "We knew the errors that we made with the puck, and then just errors defensively, so we were disappointed in ourselves. Each guy, you could tell they had a little bit extra grit to come up with in the third."

THIRD PERIOD

All hands on deck to deliver victory.

With Leon Draisaitl out for the remainder of the regular season, the Oilers are going to need their depth contributors to step up in his absence, and their strong showing from all four lines and their defence shone through in the final frame to earn them the two valuable points up for grabs on Tuesday.

"For everyone to contribute is big, and even with [Draisaitl], you want a team effort to get wins deep in the season," Murphy said. "It's going to take that from everyone. We had some lapses in this game, especially in the second period, so for the guys to take control in this room between periods after the second and come back in the third really hungry and bring that team effort, I think it's really important."

The hard work of Edmonton's fourth line came through 4:49 into the third period when Trent Frederic helped turn the puck over in San Jose's zone, leading to the rebound from Adam Henrique's low effort being put away by Max Jones for the go-ahead goal.

"Rico's got tons of experience and knows how to make little plays all over the ice, and  Freddy's a big body who's in there on the forecheck with me," Jones said. "It's nice to get pucks back and then kind of work them and grind them down from there."

Henrique picked up his second assist of the night to highlight what was an impressive performance from both him and his linemates on the fourth line on Tuesday.

"That line was huge for us, and we talked before about needing guys stepping up," Knoblauch said. "No one's going to replace Leon. That's never going to happen. But everyone collectively needs to be a little bit better. That fourth line, all three of them, were the difference tonight."

A long-time teammate of Jones with both Anaheim and Edmonton, Henrique said that the energy he brought tonight is the epitome of his hard style of play that was pivotal to the Oilers' victory.

"I've known Jonesy for a long time, and that's his game and he's done a great job," Henrique said. "It's tough going up and down, back and forth, and I thought he did a great job last time he was up just playing that hard, simple game."

Jones' second goal of the season in only his 10th game with the Oilers this year would stand up as the game-winner after Zach Hyman added his 29th for the insurance marker with another finish off a rebound three and a half minutes later.

After Matt Savoie got a slight touch to Mattias Ekholm's shot from the point, Hyman found the loose puck and dropped to one knee before roofing it over the stretched-out Alex Nedeljkovic to provide the Oilers with some breathing room with over half a period left to play in regulation.

The Sharks pulled their goalie late in regulation, but a tripping call on Sherwood as McDavid exited the defensive zone with the puck allowed them to see out their 5-3 victory with the extra man, completing a huge victory in the Pacific playoff race.