GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Sharks 0

SAN JOSE, CA – Shuttin' out the regular season in style.

The Edmonton Oilers earned a 3-0 shutout victory over the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Wednesday to close out their regular season, receiving 18 saves from Stuart Skinner and a multi-point game from Ty Emberson while captain Connor McDavid was able to reach 100 points for the fifth straight year.

The captain provided the primary assist on Emberson's opening goal in the first period that led to the defenceman firing through a shot from the point for his second goal of the campaign – both against his former Sharks team – resulting in McDavid hitting the century mark for the eighth time in his career with his 10th assist in his last four games.

"Amazing," Stuart Skinner said of his captain. "I mean, he's the best player in the world for a reason, right? Being able to get 100, it's just milestone after milestone for that guy. He's obviously a legend and a great leader, so what else is there to say?

"He's 97, the captain and the best player in the world."

Emberson then picked up a secondary helper later the second period on Max Jones' first goal with the Oilers to officially record his first career multi-point game, while Jones' tally put an end to his 33-game goal drought that dated back over a year ago to Mar. 1, 2024 when he was part of the Anaheim Ducks.

Veteran winger Corey Perry made it 3-0 into an empty net to finish his regular season with 19 goals, and Jeff Skinner added an assist to conclude his campaign on 699 career points entering what'll be his first-ever visit to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after playing 1,078 games without an appearance.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner was steady with 18 saves to record his third-career shutout against the Sharks after looking composed over his last two starts against Winnipeg and San Jose, stopping 35 of the 36 total shots he faced.

"You want to stay with the same mentality as tonight going into the first round," Skinner said. "You don't want to try too much when you're going into a playoff game, but it's going to be a lot of energy and a lot of work going into it. I think for me just building off of this, I thought I played well, shook a little bit more rust off and I'm ready to go for the first round."

The Oilers now embark on what they hope will be another long playoff journey, starting with another matchup against the Kings in the first round where they're expected to receive reinforcements as players like Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Trent Frederic and Jake Walman get healthy for Game 1.

"There's been a lot of injuries, a lot of rotating doors of guys coming in and guys coming out, guys playing shorthanded, guys playing a little bit hurt, but I think it's been been good," Emberson said. "Everyone has stepped up. Some guys played in different roles and different situations, and I think it's been really good. We've kind of found our game going into playoffs here."

FIRST PERIOD

The century mark for McDavid seemed inevitable once it was made official by Head Coach Kris Knoblauch following this morning's pre-game skate that he'd be in the lineup for Wednesday's regular-season finale at the Shark Tank

That couldn't have been more true.

After the Sharks built themselves a 5-0 lead in shots just past the eight-minute mark of the opening frame, McDavid had the puck along the wall during his team's next foray into the offensive zone, where he moved it up top to Emberson to open the scoring on Edmonton's first shot of the hockey game by firing his second goal of the season through a screen provided in front by Connor Brown.

With his 74th assist – the third-most in the NHL this season – McDavid secured his eighth career 100-point campaign and fifth in a row to become the fourth player in League history to record at least eight 100-point seasons, joining elite company in Wayne Gretzky (15), Mario Lemieux (10) and Marcel Dionne (8).

"I don't think you can ever get used to that, no matter how long he's been doing it," Knoblauch said post-game. "Surprisingly, he only had one point with how many plays he made and the amount of time he had the puck on his stick. But it's remarkable for anyone to accomplish what he's accomplished.

"Obviously, there's a very gifted and driven player in there."

The Oilers captain also became the 13th player in NHL history to register at least five straight 100-point seasons and the first since Steve Yzerman, who did it six straight times with the Detroit Red Wings from 1987 to 1993. McDavid would've matched that milestone tonight if he hadn't been stopped short during the 2019-20 COVID-impacted season when he had 97 points in 67 games before the NHL cancelled the remaining schedule.

McDavid reached the milestone tonight by posting a helper to go along with three straight multi-assist efforts over his previous three games after he missed eight straight because of injury, while he's also now picked up a point in each of the last 17 games (4G, 25A).

Emberson has now scored both of his goals with the Oilers at the expense of his former Sharks team.

"Feels good," he said. "A couple of my NHL goals have been in this building, so it's always nice to score and against my old team."

SECOND PERIOD

That's also gotta feel good for Max Jones heading into his first postseason with the Oilers.

The Trade Deadline acquisition from Anaheim got on the scoresheet in the middle frame with his first goal for the club, scoring his first goal since Mar. 1, 2024 when he finished off his former Ducks teammate Adam Henrique's back-hand pass from below the goal line to make it 2-0 with 9:43 remaining in the frame.

Career goal No. 32 for Jones put an end to his 33-game goal drought and marked his first tally in 18 games wearing the Blue & Orange.

Ty Emberson picked up the secondary assist to give the Eau Claire, Wisc. product his first career multi-point game in the NHL while playing as one of only five defencemen in the Edmonton lineup on Wednesday with Darnell Nurse serving a one-game suspension to conclude the season.

The Oilers were tracking toward recording their fourth straight 100-point campaign after reaching the century mark only once in the 30 years prior to 2016-17, when they recorded 103 points with a 47-26-9 record before losing in seven games to the Ducks in the second round of the playoffs.

THIRD PERIOD

A couple of other individual milestones came inches away from being reached, but it was job done for the Oilers closing out their regular season with a shutout victory after Corey Perry iced the game into an empty net with over two-and-a-half minutes remaining in regulation.

"It feels good to finish out the regular season with a win, but we know the challenge ahead is going to be a difficult one," Knoblauch said.

The Oilers bench was on its feet when defenceman Cam Dineen had an open look from the slot stopped by Georgiev before he picked up his own rebound, but despite having the Sharks netminder at his mercy, the 26-year-old put his backhand off the post after he was slashed by Ty Dellandrea to draw a penalty.

Winger Jeff Skinner, who had an assist on Emberson's opening goal in the opening frame to reach 699 career points, was close to reaching the 700-point mark when he had his shot stopped trying to pick the short side on Georgiev during an odd-man rush with Connor Brown – meaning his quest for the milestone will have to carry over into next year.

But I'm sure it's not even on his mind as he gets set to make his first career playoff appearance after playing 1,078 NHL career regular season games.

The Sharks tried to pull their goalie to break Stuart Skinner's shutout, but Corey Perry was able to find himself free in the neutral zone with the puck to turn around and fire it into the empty net for his 19th goal of the season – an impressive feat for the 39-year-old who now sits 68th all-time in NHL scoring.

Skinner secured his third career shutout over the Sharks with 18 saves, improving to 6-1-0 against Edmonton's Pacific Division competition after he notched his first career clean sheet in this building back on Valentine's Day during the 2021-22 season.

"Stu's been really good for us the last couple games he's played, but I think it's just finding our momentum going into the most important time of the year," Emberson said. "Just making sure that we're above pucks, we're not turning it over and we're getting pucks in deep while just making sure that we don't give them anything easy."

The Oilers allowed only 36 shots over Skinner's final two regular season games after they held the Presidents' Cup winning Winnipeg Jets to 18 shots and one goal back on Sunday, and the netminder said that's a product of his teammate's ability to keep them to the outside while blocking shots.

"It's impressive not giving up too many shots against," he said. "It kind of says that we're keeping them on the outside for a majority of it. I think at the same time, it's blocked shots. Guys are getting in the lanes and doing everything they can to make sure they don't have a chance to get a goal, so it's really important especially coming down the stretch here.

"When you get a shutout, you have a lot to give to your teammates for that."

The Oilers reached 100 points for the fourth consecutive season, finishing 48-29-5 as they now prepare to face the Los Angeles Kings for the fourth straight year in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

See you on the other side, Oil Country.