Sharks power play spills over in victory against the Oilers

Coming into tonight’s game my expectations were low. This felt like the kind of game the Sharks would lose this season. After falling in the skills competition last night and securing a playoff berth, San Jose had plenty of reason to come out sluggish Tuesday night. The first period backed up all the fears I had prior to puck drop. The Oilers came out of the gate fiery and got on the scoreboard first as David Perron scored his 26th goal of the year.

And then something amazing happened. The Sharks scored the next four goals and three of them came on the power play. Man, I feel like someone was JUST saying that the death of the power play had been greatly exaggerate. They should pay that guy more to write about hockey. He could go for some pizza right now.

Just when you thought the game couldn’t get any better, Pavelski scored his third hat trick of the season. That’s a hat trick of hat tricks for those of you scoring at home. He’s now tied for second place with Jonathan Cheechoo for the most hat tricks scored by a Shark in a single season. Pavelski now has 37 goals on the season and has a legitimate chance at scoring 40 goals for the first time in his career.

[Fancy Stats] – [Oilers Reaction]
[Event Summary] – [PBP Log] – [TOI Log] – [Faceoff Report]

• The Sharks now have 103 points, putting them four clear of the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks have three games in hand on the Sharks and a weak schedule, so San Jose is going to have to keep winning if they want to hold on to the division.
• No Logan Couture tonight. Apparently the puck that hit his ankle tore away skin all the way to his bone. Blocking shots! Kind of a crappy strategy!
• Speaking of blocking shots, Adam Burish had his hand destroyed tonight, so don’t expect to see him again for…well, for a long time, I’d imagine. The Sharks are going to have to make a call-up from Worcester now; perhaps we’ll see John McCarthy again?
• Matt Nieto had a phenomenal game tonight despite not showing up on the scoreboard. I talked about this on Twitter, but Nieto has really shown he belongs on this team despite being considered something of a long shot to make the squad at the beginning of the year. Just a Good Orange County Boy!
• The Sharks power play Tuesday was about as good as it has been during this slump. The only difference is that they scored three times. I’ll take it.
• Antti Niemi wasn’t the story of this game, but he very well could have been. He stopped 28 of 30 Oilers shots and stood tall throughout several Edmonton barrages throughout the game.
• Hits is a stupid statistic, but Tommy Wingels had 12 of them tonight. Wind beneath my Wingels indeed.
• Ben Scrivens didn’t make 59 saves tonight. Take that, nerd. (Just kidding, I love you)
• The Sharks head home to play the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night. No chance that they put in a disappointing effort. None. Nuh uh. No way.

FTF Three Stars

1st Star: Joe Paveleski
2nd Star: Patrick Marleau
3rd Star: Taylor Hall