At times tonight, the Sharks looked like a team desperately missing their leading goal scorer. Logan Couture was out of the line up in tonight’s game due to injury and his absence was felt. San Jose was unable to put sustained pressure on the Edmonton Oilers, ending the night with a 5-3 loss.

The Sharks’ Joe Pavelski started out the scoring in the first period. Oilers goalie Cam Talbot let off a big rebound after a Kevin Lebanc shot. Pavelski was there to gobble it up and score the power play goal.

The Oilers pushed back, scoring three unanswered goals. Mark Letestu scored just seconds after Tomas Hertl’s penalty expired in the first period, tying the game 1-1. Ryan Strome scored four minutes later and the Sharks went to the locker room down 2-1.

While San Jose pushed back at the start of the second period, they were unable to put any points on the board. Edmonton tilted the ice back in their favor and Martin Jones had to come up big for San Jose once again. Jones made a series of amazing saves before Ryan Nugent-Hopkins finally got one passed him, making it 3-1 Oilers.

A few minutes later, Hertl made things interesting. A shot from the slot through traffic beat Talbot and put the Sharks within one. It initially looked like it went off of Timo Meier’s skate or the end of his stick, but the goal was eventually credited to Hertl.

In the third, it was more from the Oilers. Patrick Maroon scored his ninth goal of the season, making the score 4-2.

San Jose pushed back again, with Marcus Sorensen scoring his second goal of the season. Justin Braun made a nice pass to Sorensen in front of the net. Number 20 made no mistake and put it past Talbot and pulling the Sharks within one once again.

But that’s where the comeback ended. The Sharks made a valiant effort to tie up the game in the waning minutes. They had a number of chances after pulling Jones, but couldn’t get the puck past Talbot. Eventually, Strome took a shot down ice and scored his second of the night into the empty net,and that was all she wrote for the Sharks’ comeback attempt.

Game Notes:

• Logan Couture missed tonight’s game due to a concussion he sustained after taking a hit to the jaw from Alex Burmistrov in Vancouver on Friday night. There’s no real timetable for his return and he has been listed as day-to-day.
• Mikkel Boedker returned to the lineup after spending some time on IR. He finished the game with 8:17 of ice time and a minus-1.
• The Sharks will continue to be without the services of rookie defenseman Joakim Ryan, as he was reassigned to the Barracuda today.
• Kevin Lebanc and Brent Burns each had two assists.
• Tug on Burns’ beard and have a great night? Patrick Maroon had a goal and an assist for the Oilers. He also had this little interaction with Burnsie.