EDMONTON – The Oilers erased a two-goal deficit in regulation and David Desharnais scored in overtime as Edmonton downed the Sharks in Game 5 of their first round playoff series at Rogers Place, 4-3.
The Oilers can advance to the second round on Saturday in San Jose, while the Sharks will attempt to force a decisive Game 7 back in Edmonton.
At 18:15 of overtime, Desharnais cut towards the net and directed in a saucer pass from Leon Draisaitl.
Prior to the overtime goal, Martin Jones made a number of remarkable saves to keep it tied. He stopped Draisaitl alone in the slot, closing his five hole, and dove back with his stick to deny Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who was trying to poke in his own rebound. Later, he stretched from his right to his left in denying Connor McDavid with a left pad on a two-on-one.
Edmonton outshot the Sharks 14-2 in overtime, and 48-30 for the game.
The Sharks held a 2-1 edge after the first period, and increased that lead in the second. Just two seconds after Patrick Maroon stepped out of the penalty box, a place he’s become familiar with in the series, David Schlemko’s point shot fluttered into the top corner with Tomas Hertl setting a screen at 8:38.
It was the second straight game that the defenseman scored a goal, after the Edmonton native’s miscue led to the only goal in Game 3.
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The Oilers got one back late in the frame. On a power play, Draisaitl directed a pass through traffic to a cutting Mark Letestu, who had an empty net to flip it home to make it a 3-2 game with 1:27 left in the second period.
Shots were hard to come by in the third period, as the Sharks attempted to play back in an attempt to run out the clock. Edmonton tied it with 2:46 to go, though, when Desharnais teed up Oscar Klefbom for a heavy one-timer from the top of the circle that cleanly beat Martin to the far side.
As expected, Edmonton came out with the early energy. Milan Lucic threw a couple of big hits, including on Logan Couture in first minute, and later Maroon flattened Brent Burns in the corner.
The Oilers also got the game’s first goal, courtesy of Maroon, who buried a Matt Benning rebound on Jones at 5:28.
After the Oilers hit three posts, including two by Darnell Nurse and another by Jordan Eberle, San Jose took control of the first. Mikkel Boedker, who was a healthy scratch in games three and four, buried a Chris Tierney pass on a two-on-one rush at 10:12 to tie the score.
Another Sharks odd man rush, thanks in part to a bad line change by Edmonton, resulted in a Patrick Marleau goal at 15:52. Joe Thornton wound up and fired a slap shot that Marleau slammed home after Cam Talbot couldn’t keep the Thornton blast from sneaking behind him.
The Sharks are 22-22 all-time in overtime in the playoffs, including 1-1 this series.
The Sharks fell to 16-17 all-time in Game 5s, including 6-12 on the road. San Jose is just 1-10 all-time when trailing in a series, three games to two.
According to Elias, the winner of Game 5 in a best-of-seven series that was tied at two games apiece goes on to win the series 78.1 percent of the time (193-54).
Thursday marked the two-year anniversary of the Sharks and Oilers head coach Todd McLellan parting ways after seven seasons.
