Instant Replay: Sharks Stumble in Third Period, Fall to Oilers

BOX SCORE

SAN JOSE – A third period hat trick by Milan Lucic pushed Edmonton to a 4-2 comeback win over the Sharks on Thursday night at SAP Center.
 
Edmonton (45-26-9, 99 points) is now in the driver seat for home ice advantage in the first round, as they lead the Sharks (45-29-4, 97 points) by two points with one game in hand. 
 
San Jose concludes the regular season on Saturday at home against Calgary, while the Oilers – still in the running for first place in the Pacific Division – need just one point in their final two games with Vancouver to finish ahead of San Jose.
 
The Ducks, who beat the Blackhawks on Thursday, cannot be caught by the Sharks.
 
The Sharks led 2-1 to start the third, and had a golden opportunity to increase their lead when Matt Benning hauled down Marcus Sorensen resulting in a penalty shot for the rookie. He was stopped by Cam Talbot, though, 2:19 into the third.
 
That allowed Edmonton to take advantage of a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty to the Sharks. Lucic redirected Oscar Klefbom's point shot at 4:26, knotting the score at 2-2.
 
Lucic scored again just three-and-a-half minutes later, boxing out David Schlemko in front of the net and tapping in the rebound of Klefbom shot on the rush at 7:57.
 
He completed the hat trick with another power play goal at 16:31, whacking in a Mark Letestu rebound.
 
The Sharks lost for the ninth time in their last 12 games.
 
Joel Ward's second goal in as many games opened the scoring. He tipped a floating puck by Schlemko through Cam Talbot at 6:08 of the first period for his 10th goal of season.
 
Edmonton came on in the second period, though. Connor McDavid's 30th goal of the season tied the score at 1-1 at 4:40, as the Edmonton captain cleaned up a puck that originated off of the stick of Klefbom and deflected off of Tomas Hertl, Justin Braun and Martin Jones' pad on its way to McDavid's tape. 
 
The Oilers kept coming after that, but Jones thwarted Leon Draisaitl with a quick right pad on an Edmonton odd-man rush with 13:18 left in the middle frame.
 
San Jose retook the lead at 12:30. Tomas Hertl fought for a loose puck off of an offensive zone faceoff, and pushed it to Brent Burns at the point. Burns' wrist shot made its way through a maze of bodies for his 29th of the season, and second in his last 22.
 
Klefbof assisted on all four Oilers goals. Edmonton improved to 11-2-0 in its last 13 games.
 
The Sharks had a season-low 15 shots on goal.
 
Special teams 
 
Still looking generally lost on the power play without Joe Thornton and Logan Couture, the Sharks went 0-for-4 on the power play with just two shots on goal. They are 0-for-12 in the last five games.
 
Penalty shots haven't been much better, as the Sharks are just 1-for-7 on the season after Sorensen's miss.
 
Edmonton was 2-for-5 on the power play.
 
The Oilers were awarded a first period power play after Micheal Haley was issued an instigator on a fight with Lucic. The Oilers' heavyweight ran over Chris Tierney with a clean open-ice check, and was immediately challenged by Haley with 3:26 left in the opening frame.
 
In goal
 
Making his seventh straight start, Jones allowed four goals on 32 shots. He played all five games of the season series with Edmonton.
 
Talbot, the NHL leader in games played and minutes, notched his 41st win with 13 saves. He also saw all the time in net against San Jose this season.
 
Lineup
 
Timo Meier came out of the lineup for Micheal Haley, who was a scratch for the past two games against Vancouver. Meier played for the AHL Barracuda on Wednesday night.
 
Burns became the first defenseman with at least 75 points in consecutive seasons since the Rangers' Brian Leetch in 1995-96 and 1996-97.
 
McDavid's goal increased his point streak to 11 games (6g, 15a).
 
Up next
 
Calgary is 3-1-0 in the season series against San Jose.