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Sharks Foolishly Take 3-1 lead, lose 4-3.

The Edmonton Oilers came back from a 3-1 deficit (damn, 3-1 sucks) and defeated the San Jose Sharks 4-3 in overtime to take a 3-2 series lead as Game 6 shifts back to San Jose.

After being embarassed 7-0 by San Jose, Edmonton struck first when Patrick Maroon got a juicy rebound goal at the 5:28 mark in the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Martin Jones made the initial save on the wrister from Matt Benning but in a battle for the loose puck, Maroon won and from there Jones could only watch.

With the Great One watching from the sky boxes and Rogers Place going #BuckWild, the Sharks found the equalizer from Mikkel “Don’t scratch my ass again, Peter DeBoer” Boedker. Although he won’t be found on the score sheet, this play doesn’t happen without Paul Martin. Pistol kept an attempted Edmonton clear in the zone who fed it to Marcu Sorensen and from there it was tic-tac-toe to Chris Tierney and Boedker who finished it off.

Less than five minutes later at 15:52, the Oilers dump and chase into San Jose’s zone failed as a bouncing puck got past Milan Lucic (because f*ck Milan Lucic, right?) and Patrick Marleau retrieved. Working with Jumbo Joe, Marleau fed Thronton who got a shot past Talbot, only to be smacked in by Marleau centimeters away from the goal line. Silly Joe, you know you can’t score goals. The Sharks 2-1 lead would hold going into the first intermission.

Although the game wasn’t a “must-win” for either team, you certainly don’t want to go down 3-2 in the series, so I was curious to see how both teams would start off the second period.

The Sharks’ would go on the game’s first power play after Maroon was called for interference after taking down Jones in the trapezoid and San Jose took advantage. Just seconds after Maroon stepped back on the ice to “kill” the penalty, David Schlemko ripped a missile from the blue line that beat Cam Talbot, and suddenly San Jose was up 3-1. Screened by Tomas Hertl and Joel Ward, Talbot didn’t even react to the shot until it was past him. For Schlemko, it’s his second goal in as many games.

After several questionable no-calls, Edmonton got its first look on the power play benefiting from a Timo Meier hold with 4:51 left in the period. While the Sharks succesfully killed 1:59 of the first penalty, Brent Burns foolishly cleared the puck over the glass for a delay of penalty, putting Edmonton on essentially a 4:00 power play going back to Meier’s penalty. This time, the Oilers wouldn’t be denied. Mark Letestu beat Jones after a beautiful pass from Leon Draisaitl (WHO SHOULDN’T EVEN BE PLAYING) that went through the legs of Justin Braun and Lucic in front of the net. The Oilers cut the deficit in half and the Sharks would head into the break with a 3-2 lead.

With both teams having good looks in the third period, Brenden Dillon tripped David Desharnais behind the net which sent Edmonton onto their third power play of the night. Despite some good looks, San Jose kep the league’s fifth best power play off the board as Dillon left the sin bin with 5:31 left in the period.

Edmonton being annoying as they are tied it up with 2:46 left to play with an absolute rocket from Oscar Klefbom, bringing Rogers Place to its feet. I’m not going to lie; it felt like after Letestu’s goal the Oilers would find a way to tie the game back up, and Klefbom did just that as hit shot hit off the crossbar and fell in.

A summary of overtime:

MARTIN JONES. MARTIN JONES. MARTIN JONES. MARTIN JONES.

Jones played incredible in overtime as all the energy was with Oilers through the overtime. Unfortunately, Desharnais got one past Jones with under 2 minutes left in the first OT period. Not going to lie, this sucks.

The Sharks head home for Game 6 down 3-2. It’s not ideal, but I like the Sharks’ odds on home ice. We’ll see what happens. Go Sharks.

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