Ryan Strome scored twice as the Edmonton Oilers knocked off the San Jose Sharks 5-3 Monday night at Rogers Place.
The Oilers’ poor penalty killing bit them early in the first period when Joe Pavelski flipped in a rebound 6:15 in to the game.
“It was an interesting start because we had the early power play and didn’t get anything with it and then they score, and you know obviously the penalty kill has been our nemesis and we sagged a little bit there, yet I thought a lot of good things were being said on the bench and we were able to overcome it,” explained Oilers head coach Todd McLellan.
Mark Letestu replied later in the period, just seconds after an Oilers power play expired. He one-timed a pass from Leon Draisaitl for his eighth of the season. With 1:09 left in the first, Strome finished off a great passing play with Draisaitl and Jujhar Khaira.
“The goal seemed to get us the momentum back and we seemed to establish it from there and play well,” added McLellan.
The Strome goal went down the 10,000th marker in Oilers franchise history.
“It was kind of cool but I think Leon deserves credit for the goal, I just had my stick on the ice and he hit it,” said Strome when describing the goal. “Cool accomplishment, a lot of great players have played here, obviously a very rich history, but I was just the beneficiary of a heck of a pass.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made it 3-1 in the second when his centring pass deflected in off Pavelski. Timo Meier beat Cam Talbot two minutes later to pull the Sharks back within a goal.
Oilers forward Patrick Maroon blasted a slapper past Martin Jones 8:23 into the third for his first goal in seven games. The Sharks came back less than three minutes later on a goal by Marcus Sorensen. San Jose applied pressure late with Jones pulled, but Strome sealed it with an empty netter with 7.6 seconds left.
Talbot made 18 saves for the win.
After the game, the win wasn’t the only thing that players were talking about in the Oilers dressing room.
During a scrum in front of the net in the second period, Patrick Maroon was spotted tugging the beard of Sharks defenceman Brent Burns.
“We were just in the scrum there and I just pulled his beard,” said Maroon. “I do some crazy stuff sometimes but it was just one of those things where we were laughing about it. I thought he would be mad at first but he asked, ‘do you like it?’ And I said, “yeah, it’s a pretty nice beard.”
“It happens more than you think. It wasn’t really a tug. He was kind of pettin’ it,” added Burns. “I kind of fell there, he kind of fell on top so he was just askin’, ‘you alright?’ It’s a nice beard.”
The game saw the Oilers, now 15-17-2, win back-to-back games for just the third time this season. They’ll host St. Louis on Thursday.