Darnell Nurse scored with 14.3 seconds left in overtime to give the Edmonton Oilers a 5-4 win over the San Jose Sharks Monday night at Rogers Place.
“We were resilient,” Nurse said. “There are nights where you’re not going to feel it but you have to find a way to win, and we did that tonight.”
“There’s things to fix tomorrow,” Oilers Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I think you have to give our players credit for finding a way to get those two points, but nobody is blind to the fact we have to fix some things.”
Sharks goalie James Reimer stopped 46 shots. San Jose had three goals overturned on video review while the Oilers had one.
The Sharks celebrated a goal before the game was two minutes old when Tomas Hertl beat Jack Campbell with a wrister. However, the goal came off the board after the Oilers successfully challenged for offside. The Sharks would go ahead a few minutes later when Alex Barabanov slammed a long rebound past Campbell.
Nick Bjugstad pulled the Oilers even as he had an open net thanks to a sharp pass from Warren Foegele.
“Obviously this team doesn’t have a hard time scoring–at least as of late,” Bjugstad said post-game of the Oilers. “When you put up that many goals it’s fun, but defensively you want to find ways to minimize their chances.”
Zack Hyman deflected in a power play goal, but it was wiped out after the Sharks challenged for goalie interference.
Steven Lorentz would tie it when he batted in his own rebound on a breakaway. Less than two minutes later, Erik Karlsson was left alone and front and went to the backhand to make it 3-2 Sharks.
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Still in the second, Mattias Ekholm drove the net and flipped a backhand past Reimer. Karlsson fired in a one-timer from the high slot to give the Sharks a 4-3 edge after two.
“Don’t get used to it with me,” Ekholm joked about his offensive outburst. “That’s the second multi-goal game of my career.”
Kailer Yamamoto notched his tenth of the season 30 seconds into the third. Then here was yet another disallowed goal. Andreas Johnsson beat Campbell, but the Oilers challenged and the officials ruled Logan Couture was guilty of goalie interference, marking the fourth disallowed goal of the game.
“We have two video coaches (Jeremy Coupal and Noah Segall) that do a really good job for us,” Woodcroft said. “We have a process we believe in. We spend a lot of time studying what gets called around the league.”
Connor McDavid had a breakaway early in the third but his shot hit the post. With 3:47 left, Ekholm walked down the left side and sent a thundering slapper over Reimer’s shoulder to make it 4-4.
“It was great that he found those two very important goals at important junctures of the game,” Woodcroft said of Ekholm.
The Oilers went on the power play with 1:44 to go when Mario Ferraro shot the puck over the glass but were unable to bag the winner.
In overtime, Nurse broke in alone down the right hand side and slid a shot under Reimer.
Campbell made 28 saves.
The Oilers, 40-23-8, will host Arizona on Wednesday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 7 p.m., game at 8:30 p.m.).
With files from Brenden Escott, 630 CHED
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