GAME STORY: Sharks 7, Oilers 2

SAN JOSE, CA -- The San Jose Sharks raced out to a 3-1 first-period lead and didn't look back as the Oilers fell 7-2 at the SAP Center on Tuesday night.
Alex Chiasson and Milan Lucic scored the goals for the Oilers, who dropped to 20-20-3 on the season but remain two points out of a playoff spot as they head into a home stand starting on Thursday against Florida.

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Edmonton returns home on Thursday against the Florida Panthers. The game can be seen on Sportsnet West and heard on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED. Puck drop is 7:08 p.m. MST.
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A pass attempt by Evander Kane went off the skate of Caleb Jones in the slot and beat Talbot through the five hole to open the scoring 6:27 into the game. It was one of a number of tough bounces on the night for Edmonton.
"We definitely don't blame that game on the bounces," said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who played in his 500th career game on the night. "It's the way we needed to respond. We didn't do a good enough job. This road trip we played two really good games and two bad games. We need to find that consistency again."
With 7:03 to go in the first, Marcus Sorensen was held up on a breakaway by Alex Petrovic and the result was a penalty shot. On the ensuing penalty shot, Sorensen elected to shoot the puck blocker side and beat Talbot to double the Sharks lead.
30 seconds after the penalty shot goal, Tim Heed got called for hooking to give the first power play of the game to the Oilers and the visitors converted a minute into the man advantage. Connor McDavid threaded a pass to Alex Chiasson in front who quickly redirected the puck past Sharks netminder Aaron Dell to make it a 2-1 game.
49 seconds after the Oilers goal, San Jose struck to regain their two-goal lead. Joonas Donskoi drove to the net and backhanded the puck past Talbot.
"Every time we had a quality chance, within five seconds it was in the back of our net," noted Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock. "All the play started in their end and all came off our scoring chances that they missed and within 10 seconds they ended up back in our net."
Hitchcock added that the Sharks outperformed the Oilers all night, particularly in the tough areas in front of the net -- both nets.
"They were attacking our net. This is two games in a row where they've just owned the red zone in front of our net, owned the slot, knocked us out of a box. They're a damn good team. They're a team that's really on the move right now," Hitchcock continued. "We had a lot of chances ourselves today but they got stick on puck, they got deflected or they got stopped in their critical ice."
Zack Kassian was called for hooking to give the Sharks their first power play of the night with 3:41 to go in the first but Oilers were able to kill it off.
After one, shots on goal were 12-7 for the Sharks.

Joakim Ryan received two minutes for delay of game (puck over glass) to send the Oilers power play back out there. Again, the power play had some great chances with the best coming when McDavid rang a shot off the crossbar behind Dell.
Oilers were called for having too many men on the ice 80 seconds into the man advantage.
Shortly after the penalty expired, Evander Kane had a puck go in off his skate in front of the net to give the Sharks a three-goal lead.
Mikko Koskinen replaced Talbot at the next stoppage, with 12:06 to go in the second. Talbot stopped 13 of 17 shots in his 28 minutes of work.
Midway through the period, Oilers converted. After some nice board work from Jesse Puljujarvi, he backhanded the puck to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who quickly dished it in front to Milan Lucic. Lucic made no mistake, rifling the puck quickly past Dell to draw the Oilers within a pair.
San Jose got that goal back with 4:21 to go in the second. With Kris Russell in the box, Brent Burns fired a shot that was deflected off the shaft of Timo Meier's stick in mid-air for a power-play marker.
After two, shots on goal were 23-17 for the Sharks.
Joe Thornton's shot went off the skate of Adam Larsson and in past Koskinen to put the Sharks up by four 1:04 into the third.
Midway through the third, after Koskinen made a pair of saves, Doonskoi picked up the third rebound and fired it past the outstretched Oilers netminder to make it a 7-2 game.
"We need to come together as a group, as players, and play like we have each others' back because we do. Everybody gets along," said Lucic after the game. "There's no issues between the guys, no cancer on the team. It's just about coming together. We've shown we can do that. It's not a trade, it's not the management, it's not the coaches it's not anyone. It's the players coming together and doing it together and doing it for each other that's going to get us moving the right way.
"We have more than enough games to get it going. This is a team that could get to where it wants to go once we get it figured out."