BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER
Defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin picked a great time for his fourth goal of the season, mid way thru the third quarter, giving the San Jose Sharks a 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers at SAP Center Saturday afternoon, snapping a five game losing streak that stretched back to January prior to the Olympics.
Philipp Kurashev celebrates a third period goal by Alexander Wennberg during the Sharks 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers at SAP Center Saturday.
Mukhamadullin’s goal at 9:27 of the third period off a pass from William Eklund capped a strong offensive performance by the Sharks (28-25-4), who went 0-4-1 during their losing streak.
Nineteen year old rookie Michael Misa had a goal and an assist and Yaroslav Askarov stopped 28 shots for San Jose as the Sharks improved to (1-0-1) on the season against Edmonton. Macklin Celebrini also scored for the Sharks.
Celebrini opened the scoring off an assist from Will Smith before Misa scored a power play goal at the 11:07 mark of the first period to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead. After the Oilers fought back to tie the game at three early in the third, Alexander Wennberg put San Jose up 4-3 five and a half minutes into the final period, setting the stage for Mukhamadullin’s heroics.
Connor McDavid had three assists, Evan Bouchard had a goal and two assists, and Leon Draisaitl scored a goal for the Oilers (29-24-8), who have only won once in their past six games.
Connor McDavid gets off a shot in front of a defending Macklin Celebrini Saturday afternoon at SAP Center during the Sharks 5-4 win over Edmonton.
“I thought we did some really good things,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Like our first (period). Did some good things in the second. Obviously, they’re a good team, and they’re going to push, and they did that in the third period of the game. Obviously, [it] opened up a little bit too much of our liking, but we found a way to win a hockey game.”
After a brief rest, the Sharks return to action tomorrow on their home ice for another matinee against Olympics hero Connor Hellebuyck and the Winnipeg Jets at 1PM.
GAME NOTES:
Askarov’s 18th win of the season made him second in the league among rookie goaltenders.
McDavid (773 games) recorded his 60th career three assist game. Only three players in NHL history have recorded 60 three assist outings in fewer games: Wayne Gretzky (352 games), Mario Lemieux (507) and Bobby Orr (634).
