Oilers ‘do it the hard way’ to beat Sharks

Heavyweight bouts usually feature big swings, a couple of knockdowns and viewers on the edge of their seats in every round.

That’s what hockey fans were expecting Saturday afternoon when the Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks, with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Macklin Celebrini, Ivar Stenberg, et al took to the ice in Southern California.

Instead, it was 40 minutes of drudging defensive play, and an explosive third period that saw the Oilers, already up 1-0 thanks to a first-period Mattias Ekholm goal, score twice more in a 3-1 win.

“I just thought that we stuck with the plan,” said Oilers head coach Mike Babcock after the win. “Their guys were organized and structured and played hard, and there wasn’t a lot of room out there.

“You didn’t generate anything off the rush tonight, so I thought we had to do it the hard way. In the end we scored a rush goal, but it was after heavy O-zone play, and we got a counter.”

It was clear early that the Oilers didn’t want to get into a track meet, and they were effective in playing a low-event game. In fact, so effective that they were able to stall much of the offence the Sharks pressed for. Shots in the first period were an even 5-5, and 7-3 in San Jose’s favour in the second.

But by the third, the Oilers had ducked and weaved enough, ready to strike back. It took all of 3:13 to do so, when Connor McDavid flew into the offensive zone, dropping a pass into the slot for Vasily Podkolzin to one-time home to extend the lead.

While the Oilers’ depth helped them get on the board first, thanks to some strong work along the wall by Isaac Howard and Josh Samanski, the former of whom who set up a big blast from Ekholm, it continued as the game progressed. Just under six minutes into the third period, it was Edmonton’s third line who got on the board, as Mathieu Joseph sprung Alex Formenton on a breakaway, making a forehand-backhand move to roof a puck past Sharks netminder Yaroslav Askarov.

That Owen Michaels line, mind you, along with the second line of Jason Dickinson, Filip Hallander and Kasperi Kapanen, saw most of their ice time against the Celebrini line, as the Sharks kept him away from McDavid and co.

“Well, I liked their game, but I liked Dickey’s game too, so we kind of used two lines against them when they didn’t want to go against McDavid,” said Babcock. “But let’s give our fourth line credit.

“I thought Samanski had his best game. Frederic was crawling all over the goalie when we shot it in the net there. Howard made a nice play, so those guys were an important piece. We were able to play four lines tonight, and those guys were good.”

San Jose had their punch, too, as after Michaels was unable to clear the Oilers’ zone, Sharks forward Michael Misa dug a puck out, and set up the dangerous Macklin Celebrini, who rifled one home. Besides the gaff, Michaels had another strong game for the Oilers, going 10-2 in the faceoff circle and playing 14:15.

Edmonton’s ability to keep this game low-event meant an easy night for Tristan Jarry, who only faced three high-danger scoring chances all night, according to Natural Stat Trick, as he turned aside 19 of 20 shots for a .950 save percentage. The quality start was great to see, but will it be enough to stave off Devon Levi from taking the bulk of the games moving forward?

Time will tell as soon as Tuesday, when the Oilers visit the Los Angeles Kings to cap off their three-game Southern California road trip.

The Oilers might even see Zach Hyman back in the lineup.