San Jose Sharks Spoil Todd McLellan’s Return Home

The San Jose Sharks had to go the distance against the Edmonton Oilers as they needed to head to the shootout for only the second time this season. San Jose looked plenty comfortable in the skills competition as Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi scored for the Sharks, and Martin Jones slammed the door shut as the Sharks emerged with a 2-1 victory.

It was an emotional night at the Shark Tank as former coach Todd McLellan made his return after spending seven seasons as the main man in the South Bay.

In a fast-moving initial frame, it was the Sharks who would strike first on a nicely executed two-on-one. Joe Thornton lifted a backhand pass to spring Melker Karlsson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and Vlasic fired a perfect shot over the right shoulder of Cam Talbot for his fifth goal of the year.

With Thornton’s assist on the play, he now has points in 12 of his last 13 games with five goals and 12 assists over that span.

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San Jose would take that lead into the locker room, and came out with a strong push at the beginning of the second period but they couldn’t find a way to get the next goal past Talbot who played a very strong game. One of those close chances came back to bite the Sharks as following a rebound attempt in which Vlasic barely missed the net.

The Oilers were able to clear the puck and after the puck hit the linesman Edmonton had their own two-on-one which ended with Nail Yakupov tying the game with his third of the season.

From that point on, it was the goaltenders who stood tall the rest of the night as they thwarted whatever opportunities came their way. Talbot would make 36 saves on the night, while Jones was solid with 24 stops.

San Jose would out shoot Edmonton by a 37-25 margin, highlighted by Logan Couture who had a game-high 11 shots on goal. With both goaltenders refusing to allow the next goal, the game headed to overtime where the Sharks faithful thought they won the game went Brent Burns lit the lamp, but it clearly came after the final horn sounded as the game headed to the shootout.

Pavelski would go first and score between the legs of Talbot, setting up Donskoi for the move of the night. Donskoi would skate in on Talbot, make a quick deke to his backhand before bringing it right back to his forehand where he slid the puck into the wide open net.

It was a spectacular move and one that is not often seen by a Sharks player in the shootout.

San Jose has now won consecutive home games for the first time this season, and extended their unbeaten streak to seven games when scoring the first goal of the game on home ice. The Sharks are starting to find their groove and are finding different ways to win games which they weren’t doing last month.

Next: Joe Pavelski Leads Sharks By Example

The Sharks will look to continue their winning ways on Saturday when they welcome the Central Division-leading Dallas Stars to SAP Center. This will be a big litmus test for San Jose to see if they are true competitors with the top teams in the Western Conference.