San Jose Sharks Battle Edmonton Oilers For Final Time This Season

The San Jose Sharks will battle the Edmonton Oilers for the fifth and final match this season. The Sharks have won three out of four games thus far, and hope to make it 5-1 in tonight’s game. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The San Jose Sharks will battle the Edmonton Oilers for the fifth and final match this season. The Sharks have won three out of four games thus far, and hope to make it 5-1 in tonight’s game.  The only loss was that incredible game on January 29th where Ben Scrivens set an NHL record for saves in a shutout with 59.

This is the first of a three game home stretch for the Sharks after a 2-3-2 record over the past seven games. With the Pacific Division title looming over their heads, the Sharks need to rally and make some huge wins this week. Currently the Anaheim Ducks are three points ahead and have a game in hand. Anything can happen but the Sharks must start bringing home two points each game to make it possible.

The Oilers are coming off of a brutal 5-0 loss against the New York Rangers on Sunday.

Tale of the tape

Sharks:

  • Goals for per game: 2.92 (7th)
  • Goals against per game: 2.33 (4th)
  • Shots per game: 35.0 (1st)
  • Shots against per game: 27.7 (6th)
  • Penalty minutes: 690 (5th)
  • Power play percentage: 17.4% (19th)
  • Penalty kill percentage: 84.3% (7th)

Oilers:

  • Goals for per game: 2.41 (25th)
  • Goals against per game: 3.28 (30th)
  • Shots per game: 27.1 (27th)
  • Shots against per game: 32.7 (27th)
  • Penalty minutes: 871 (21st)
  • Power play percentage: 16.2% (23rd)
  • Penalty kill percentage: 82.0% (15th)

Top Performers

Sharks: Joe Pavelski (38 G, 35 A), Joe Thornton (11 G, 61 A), Patrick Marleau (31 G, 34 A)

Oilers: Taylor Hall (25 G, 43 A), Jordan Eberle (24 G, 32 A), David Perron (26 G, 28 A)

Injury Report

Sharks: Raffi Torres: still out of play with soreness; Jason Demers: day-to-day with the flu; Adam Burish: out; Tomas Hertl: out.

Oilers: Andrew Ference: out ; Luke Gazdic: out; Nail Yakupov: day-to-day; Jesse Joensuu: out; Ryan Jones: out.

Probable Lines

SAN JOSE (47-20-9)

Forwards

Pavelski – Thornton – Burns

Marleau – Couture – Nieto

Sheppard – Wingels – Havlat

Brown – Desjardins – Kennedy

Defensemen

Vlasic – Braun

Irwin – Boyle

Stuart – Hannan

Goalies

Niemi

Stalock

EDMONTON (26-40-9)

Forwards

Taylor Hall – Sam Gagner – David Perron

Anton Lander – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Matt Hendricks – Boyd Gordon – Tyler Pitlick

Will Acton – Ryan Smyth – Mark Fraser

Defensemen

Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz

Philip Larsen – Jeff Petry

Martin Marincin – Anton Belov

Goalies

Ben Scrivens

Viktor Fasth

Game Info

Opening Face-off: 7:30pm PST

Location: SAP Center, San Jose, CA

TV: Local