Oilers display balanced offense in win against Sharks

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers had 13 players record at least a point in a 5-3 win against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

The Oilers were playing their first game since it was announced that Leon Draisaitl would be out for the rest of the regular season. The forward suffered a lower-body injury after a hit by forward Ozzy Wiesblatt in a 3-1 win Sunday against the Nashville Predators.

“Having some adversity, missing some guys, is OK for a team,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said, “as long as we have guys who are capable of stepping up and playing better, and I believe we do, we should be all right.

“I liked how we came out and played most of the third period. I thought we just simplified our game a lot, played a lot more tenaciously. We were a lot simpler, a lot more direct.”

Adam Henrique led the way with a pair of assists, Connor McDavid also had an assist, and Connor Ingram made 27 saves for the Oilers (34-26-9), who have points in five of their last six games (4-1-1).

“We talked about that no one guy is going to be able to replace him,” Henrique said of Draisaitl. “It’s something that collectively we’re going to have to do right from here to the end of the season and see where that takes us.

“I thought tonight we did a good job responding at times through the game, and chipping in like that offensively is big.”

Dmitry Orlov and Kiefer Sherwood each had a goal and an assist, while Alex Nedeljkovic made 32 saves for the Sharks (32-28-6), who wrapped up a five-game road trip by going 2-3-0, and had won two of their previous three games.

“We had a great second period. I thought we had a really good response to how the first period went. I think we let the game get away from us there in the first,” Nedeljkovic said. “We had a great bounce back, we played our game, I thought we dominated that second period, for the most of it. 

“Every game is a playoff game now. Every game matters. We need to be at our best or close to our best every single night that we can here. If we’re not picking up points, someone else is. Tonight was a four point game, so this was a huge game for them in terms of getting the result. But we’ve got to stay with it, we’re not out of it. We’ve still got some games in hand and we play them again, play Anaheim a couple times in a few divisional games coming our way. So, a couple more four point games. I think the big picture message is every game is a playoff game for us at this point.”

Orlov put the Sharks ahead 1-0 at 7:24 of the first period. After a giveaway in the neutral zone by Oilers forward Jason Dickinson, Alexander Wennberg found Orlov with a forward pass to the left post for the backdoor tap-in that glanced off the blocker of a sprawling Ingram.

“It’s a tough one and we need to be better as a team in all aspects of the game,” Orlov said. “Basically, playoffs started for us months ago. If you look at the standings, everybody’s so close to each other. The last couple games, we’ve lost our spot in the wild card and obviously it’s not going to be easy. Every game, you can see it’s a battle and I think sometimes we just beat ourselves.

“It’s puck management and turnovers in the neutral zone, then we have to play defense more and spend more time in our zone. Especially when you play against Edmonton, if you have the puck more and spend more time in the offensive zone, then it’s going to be more frustrating for them and it’s going to be tougher for them because there is a lot of skill there, and we just kind of fed them today.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tied it 1-1 on the power play at 10:00, taking a dot-to-dot pass from McDavid and snapping the puck past Nedeljkovic’s glove short side.

Connor Murphy gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead at 11:15, getting the puck at the blue line after Dickinson won an offensive zone face-off and sending a wrist shot through traffic past Nedeljkovic’s stick.

“I don't know how many games I’ve had on St. Patrick's Day, but I'll take any sort of luck I can get, however it comes,” Murphy, who scored his first goal since joining the Oilers on March 2 in a deal that sent a second-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks, said. “Everyone says it's cliche for everyone to chip in, but it really is true.

“When the offense isn’t going to come as easy, it's going to take a little more of just being responsible with your play. And it doesn't even mean you need to score that many. It takes what it takes, whether it’s scoring five or winning 1-0.”

Vasily Podkolzin pushed the lead to 3-1 at 14:18. After forward Trent Frederic forced a turnover along the boards, Henrique teed up a short pass to Podkolzin in the high slot, beating Nedeljkovic glove side before caroming off the post and in.

Pavol Regenda cut it to 3-2 at 8:17 of the second period, redirecting a Mario Ferraro slap shot from the point under Ingram’s glove from the high slot.

Sherwood tied it 3-3 at 14:36, chasing down a puck that got sent around the boards on a wide shot by Darnell Nurse for a breakaway, deking in and beating Ingram glove side.

Max Jones gave Edmonton a 4-3 lead at 4:49 of the third period, reaching across the crease to pick up the rebound of a shot by Henrique and tucking it past Nedeljkovic’s right pad.

“We lost two battles in front of the net,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “(We need to) win the battles.”

Zach Hyman scored for the 5-3 final at 8:12. He fell to one knee to reach a rebound off a point shot by Mattias Ekholm and sent in a backhand shot over Nedeljkovic’s right shoulder after a quick touch in front by Matt Savoie.

“We had a great third period,” Hyman, who has an NHL-best 27 goals since Dec. 11, said. “Obviously, a tough second (period) to let them back into the game, but I thought we were really able to bear down in the third period and played well throughout.

“It was a huge goal from 'Jonesy' and then we were able to seal it. It was a big one.”

NOTES: Edmonton (34-26-9, 77 points) leapfrogged the Vegas Golden Knights (31-23-14, 76 points) for second place in the Pacific Division. ... Edmonton had 10 forwards collect a point in a game for the second time this season (also 10 on Dec. 6). The only team with more instances in 2025-26 is Vegas (three times). ... Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini’s point streak ended at nine games (seven goals, seven assists). ... The Sharks are 1-13-2 on the season when Celebrini doesn’t register a point. ... The Oilers have won their last nine home games against the Sharks, and 15 of their last 17 overall matchups against San Jose. ... McDavid pushed his point streak to three games (one goal, four assists).