PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Sharks

The Edmonton Oilers will close out their three-game California road trip on Friday looking to replicate their performance in Los Angeles when they visit SAP Center to face the San Jose Sharks.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 2:00 pm MST or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880 CHED.

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PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Sharks

SAN JOSE, CA – Looking to finish the road trip how we responded in LA.

After putting eight past the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday in a bounce-back win, the Edmonton Oilers will look to follow up that performance on Saturday afternoon at SAP Center in another pivotal Pacific Division battle against the San Jose Sharks.

The Oilers answered back in a big way in the second of a back-to-back against the Kings after their 6-5 defeat to the Anaheim Ducks the night before, where they didn't trail all game and squandered multiple two-goal leads before giving up the game-winner with 72 seconds left to lose two valuable points in the Pacific playoff race.

"When things are on the line and they need a bounce-back game, they usually respond really well," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "We were a little disappointed with how the previous games had gone, especially the one the night before in Anaheim, but I thought we played a really good game, scored some goals, but more importantly, I thought we checked really well."

Ty Emberson and Vasily Podkolzin scored 54 seconds apart in the first period, and the Oilers didn't look back as they cruised to an 8-1 victory with the help of Connor McDavid's 100th point of the season and multi-point nights from six different players.

It was a much-needed victory for the Oilers, helping them retake second in the Pacific from Anaheim and end their four-game win streak dating back before the Olympics.

"We let the last one slip away, back-to-back divisional games where things are really tight," Hyman said. "They're all like four-point games, and we've got another one against San Jose coming up. It feels like almost over half our games are against our division, and it's pretty tight, so these are important."

Leading 2-1 after 20 minutes, Andrew Mangiapane registered his seventh goal of the year just under three minutes into the middle frame before Connor McDavid tallied his 35th less than two minutes later, using his patience to pull Darcy Kuemper out of the crease before rounding LA's net and putting it under the crossbar to leave himself one point off registering his sixth straight 100-point campaign and the ninth of his career.

Zach Hyman and Leon Draisaitl each picked up power-play goals to make it 6-1 on the Kings just 31 seconds into the third period, with McDavid's primary assist on his German teammate's 30th goal of the campaign giving him 100 points in 60 games – the fourth-fastest rate that No. 97 has reached the century mark for points.

Defenceman Jake Walman added his sixth and seventh goals for his second multi-goal game of the season to round out the scoring in an 8-1 victory.

Matt Savoie registered two more assists to record multi-point efforts in back-to-back games for the first time in his career following his first three-point effort in defeat against the Ducks on Wednesday.

The St. Albert product has nine points (3G, 4A) over his last 12 games and sits 11th in NHL rookie scoring with 23 points (10 goals) in 60 games this season.

The Sharks are engulfed in a four-game losing streak of their own that was extended on Thursday in a 4-1 defeat to the Calgary Flames, where they gave up four unanswered goals after Tyler Toffoli lifted them into a 1-0 lead early in the second period.

 The Oilers have won seven straight games against the Sharks by a 31-11 margin after coming back to win 4-3 in overtime during their last meeting on Jan. 29 at Rogers Place.

Saturday's meeting will be the first reunion between Macklin Celebrini and Connor McDavid since they caught fire together with Team Canada at Milano Cortina 2026.