SAN JOSE – Two days after being blanked by Edmonton for a second consecutive game, San Jose erupted for a 7-0 pounding of the Oilers to square the best four-of-seven first round series at 2-2 Tuesday night at sold-out SAP Center.
Game 5 will be played Thursday night in Edmonton, with the sixth game Saturday night in San Jose.
Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski each scored twice, while Joe Thornton, back for his second game of the series, added his first assist.
The Sharks came up with three power play goals by the second of the second period while building a 6-0 advantage. Shark David Schlemko scored a power play goal 6:45 into the third for a 7-0 lead.
Oiler Leon Draisaitl was given a five-minute major for spearing Chris Tierney at 13:44 of the second period. That penalty led to Pavelski’s second goal, at 16:46, coming off assists from Brent Burns and Thornton.
By the 12:51 mark of the second period, Oiler goaltender Cam Talbot was replaced by rookie Laurent Brossoit.
“We have confidence,” Thornton said of the San Jose power play showing. “It was a matter of time.”
The Sharks needed 15 seconds of the first period to take a 1-0 lead. San Jose earned a face-off in the Oiler zone after ten seconds. Pavelski won the face-off, and when defenseman Justin Braun powered a low shot from the blueline, Pavelski deflected the shot past Talbot at the 0:15 mark.
“That first goal got us feeling good,” said coach Pete DeBoer.
The first of four San Jose successful power plays completed the scoring for the first period. The Sharks kept the pressure on Edmonton’s penalty killers for one minute before Couture made it 2-0 by timing a snapshot from the right circle past Talbot off a Pavelski pass.
San Jose produced four goals in the second period to eliminate any suspense in the outcome.
When Oiler captain Connor McDavid went to the box for interference, San Jose moved to 3-0 off Patrick Marleau’s pin-point shot from the top of the left circle 2:02 into the second.
San Jose struck for a pair of goals midway through the second. Schlemko’s blast from the blueline bounded off Talbot’s pads and rookie Marcus Sorensen was ready at the edge of the crease for the put-back goal, his first-ever playoff point at 9:46.
Couture pocketed his second goal of the night at 12:52 when he received Jannik Hansen’s feed and deftly found the top right corner of the net from the slot.
“He has a lot of courage,” DeBoer said of Couture’s effort. “He’s looked like his old self again.”
The Sharks established a new franchise mark with the seven-goal differential. The previous high for San Jose was a five-goal margin.
“We’re learning as we go,” Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said of the Oiler experience in the Game Four. “Hopefully, we learned some lessons. From Minute One to Minute Sixty, it was completely one-sided.”
