The Edmonton Oilers were battling for their playoff lives, sitting in 6th place but with only 2 points seperating them from 9th coming into San Jose Tuesday night. The Sharks were still sitting in first, suddenly the gap between them and the rest of the West tightened, courtesy to a 1-1-3 road trip for San Jose. In a matchup where the Oilers have had the upper hand against the Sharks at HP Pavilion, and where San Jose has allowed at least 5 goals in their last 2 games, both teams were looking for a very important win that would have huge playoff implications.
The first score of the game came 10 minutes into the first period, in what looked to be an even match. Ryane Clowe checked an Oiler defenseman off the puck in the Edmonton zone, and Milan Michalek jumped on the loose puck to pass it to Joe Pavelski, who wristed a shot over Dwayne Roloson to give the Sharks the lead 1-0. But the goal seemed to have awakened the Edmonton Oilers, as they jumped all over San Jose and dominated the second half of the first period. Edmonton's fourth line got a rare goal from Zack Stortini, who was helped by Kyle Brodziak in front, who distracted Evgeni Nabokov enough for the netminder to lose balance, leaving the net wide open for Stortini. Then, in the last minute of the first, Erik Cole got a power play goal off a weird dump in by Sheldon Souray. Souray shot the puck off the glass in what seemed to be a routine play, but instead of rolling around the board, the puck jumped back in front of the net. Nabokov was behind his net trying to play the puck, and Cole got an easy tap in to make it 2-1 Edmonton.
Emotions, bad calls by the refs, and missed calls by the refs filled the second period which had a combined total of 56 penalty minutes instituted on both teams (at one point Edmonton had 4 players in the penalty box at the same time), including Claude Lemieux's first 15 of the season, where he got 5 minutes for fighting 21 year old Theo Peckham and 10 minutes for a game misconduct, where he continued to swing at Peckham after the refs broke up the fight. Although Lemieux didn't stand a chance against a player who Oiler coach Craig MacTavish said "doesn't know much about Claude Lemieux", referring to the age differential, the Sharks used the 43 year old's fight as motivation to get their legs going in the second.
Early in the second period, a turnover in the neutral zone by Jonathan Cheechoo allowed him to set up a pass off Patrick Marleau's skate, which Marleau kicked behind the Edmonton defender for a wide open shot, which he wristed past Roloson to tie the game at 2-2. Then a flurry of penalties were called, which resulted in San Jose having to kill off a 4-3, then an eventual 5-3. Joe Pavelski made very key clears when the Sharks were shorthanded, and then Marleau stepped out of the box to make it a 5 on 4 situation. However, Mike Grier was not looking to kill off the penalty, and he and Marleau broke off an odd man rush. Marleau outskated Sheldon Souray, and Grier passed the puck past Roloson onto Marleau's stick into a wide open net to give the Sharks the 3-2 lead. After that goal, the game became nasty and the majority of the 56 penalty minutes were handed out. But in the last minute of the game, Joe Thorton caused a turnover in the Edmonton zone, and passed it to a wide open Lukas Kaspar. Kaspar broke his stick on the shot, but the rebound went right to Thorton, who shot it over a diving Roloson to give the Sharks the 4-2 lead. Both teams settled down in a defensive third period, and the Sharks killed off a late power play and empty net situation to win the game.
The win for the Sharks broke a 3 game losing streak, and a 2 game home losing streak. The Sharks are now 24-2-3 at home, and it was the first time the home team had won this season in the match-up of the Sharks against the Oilers. Marleau's first goal of the game was his 600th career point, all with the San Jose Sharks. The loss for the Oilers snapped a 3 game winning streak, and Edmonton has not won 4 games in a row since the start of the season, where they went 4-0 and were first in the NHL. Dwayne Roloson made 27 saves, which was below his usual standards for playing in HP Pavilion, where he had a 48 save night last season and a 41 save overtime effort this season to defeat the Sharks at home. Tom Gilbert assisted on both Edmonton goals. The Sharks were 0-4 on the power play, including a failed 5 on 3 opportunity, but also killed off 5 of 6 power plays, with the lone power play goal allowed coming off the strange bounce that fooled Nabokov. San Jose coach Todd McLellon drastically changed his lines due to the recent string of injuries the Sharks have been suffering, putting Lukas Kaspar on the first line with Thorton and Setoguchi and moving Marleau down to the third line with Grier and Cheechoo. Lemieux was playing center for the first time in his career on the fourth line for the Sharks. Although Lemieux admitted defeat in his fight against Peckham, he stated that it wasn't about the fighting itself, but it was to "inject some passion into the game". He also added jokingly "(Peckham) beat up an old man, so that's not much on his resume." The Sharks play the Los Angeles Kings in San Jose on Thursday night, and San Jose has won all 3 meetings between the two teams this season. But Los Angeles has gone 7-2-2 in their last 11 games, including a 7-6 shootout loss against Atlanta Monday night where they scored 3 goals in the last 10 minutes of the third to send the game to overtime.
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