Mikkel Boedker gets hat trick in Sharks win

EDMONTON -- Forward Mikkel Boedker had a hat trick for the San Jose Sharks in a 5-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Tuesday.
Boedker had three goals in 39 games and was a healthy scratch for the first time this season Thursday against the Minnesota Wild. He scored in his return Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings and followed that with his fourth NHL hat trick.

WATCH: All Sharks vs. Oilers highlights
Brent Burns and Logan Couture scored for San Jose (25-14-2), and Martin Jones made 33 saves.
"A game like that, when you score on your first shift you're going to feel good the whole game," Boedker said. "They came my way today, three good goals."

Boedker had not scored in 28 games before sitting out a 5-4 loss against Minnesota. It is the second time he scored three goals against the Oilers. Boedker had his first NHL hat trick against Edmonton with the Arizona Coyotes in a 7-4 win on Oct. 15, 2014.
"After struggling and not producing you always feel pressure," Boedker said. "But the pressure stays with you. Now you have to expect to go out and do the things I'm relied on to do."
Drake Caggiula, Matt Benning and Oscar Klefbom scored for Edmonton (21-15-7), and Cam Talbot made 23 saves. Edmonton has lost its past two games and four of its past six (2-3-1).
"We were too slow out of the gate … for 25 minutes of the game we were on our heels," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "To me, it was very reminiscent of the game in Ottawa [5-3 loss at the Senators on Sunday]. Not really ready to go, too slow, turnovers, no execution early in the game, and then put your foot on the gas and go after a team. In this case we gave up five instead of four [empty-net goal in Ottawa]. We're not going to win like that."
Boedker gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 1:39 of the first period, collecting a rebound in front and lifting a shot over Talbot.
Caggiula tied it at 15:53, but Burns scored on the power play with 17.9 seconds remaining to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead.

Boedker scored at 2:24 of the second period for a 3-1 lead, capitalizing on a turnover by forward Benoit Pouliot in the Oilers zone. He completed the hat trick at 8:55.
"That's what we need from him," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "He was playing well before Christmas and we knew these types of games were coming. He's in for a big second half, and we need him."
Benning scored 22 seconds into the third period to make it 4-2, taking a pass at the top of the right face-off circle and shooting past Jones.
Klefbom made it 4-3 at 3:45 on a shot from the point through traffic.
Couture gave San Jose a 5-3 lead at 5:06 on a breakaway.
"We shot ourselves in the foot early on," Caggiula said. "It's a tough league to play from behind all the time."

Goal of the game

Couture stole the puck from Benning at the Edmonton blue line and scored when the puck bounced in off his leg after his initial shot was stopped.

Save of the game

Jones slid across his crease to make an outstanding pad save on Oilers forward Patrick Maroon at 3:22 of the second period.

Unsung performance of the game

Vlasic returned after taking a shot in the face and missing four games and blocked a game-high seven shots.

Highlight of the game

Boedker tipped a point shot from Marc-Edouard Vlasic past Talbot in the second period for his third goal of the game.

They said it

"We just had little breakdowns here and there and we weren't sharp enough in the first half of the game, and I think in the last 25 minutes we actually played really good, but against a team like that you can't not play that well for as long as we did." -- Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
"It was 4-1, any team would respond the way they did. We were able to keep it 4-3 and got a big fifth goal, which kind of shifted the momentum to our side." -- Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic
"It wasn't the difference in the game but we regrouped and settled in and the next goal was, obviously, a big one." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer on calling a timeout after the Oilers scored to make it 4-3

Need to know

Maroon had a game-high six shots on goal … Oilers forward Connor McDavid had a three-game point streak (five assists) end … Vlasic had two assists in his first game back after being struck in the face with a puck Dec. 30.

What's next

Sharks: At the Calgary Flames on Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET; SN, SN1, CSN-CA, NHL.TV)
Oilers: Home against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, MSG+, NHL.TV)