Sharks defeat Oilers in OT, pad lead for second in Pacific

EDMONTON -- The San Jose Sharks added to their lead for second place in the Pacific Division with a 4-3 overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Wednesday.
Tomas Hertl scored his second goal of the night 2:40 into overtime when he one-timed a pass from Logan Couture to give San Jose its second straight win and fourth in six games.

After the Sharks fell behind by one goal for the third time earlier in the third period, defenseman Brenden Dillon tied the game 3-3 with a shot from the point through traffic at 9:05.
WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Oilers highlights]
"I don't know if we want to be doing that too often," said Dillon, who ended a 31-game goal drought dating to Jan. 4. "I don't want to make excuses, but after a long homestand, we may have been getting the plane legs out from under us in the first period. As the game went on, we got back to Sharks hockey and what makes us successful. We were able to get our feet back under ourselves and ended up getting a big two points in the end."
Couture had a goal and two assists, Mikkel Boedker had two assists, and Martin Jones made 25 saves for the Sharks (38-23-9), who lead the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks by three points in the Pacific race. They trail the Vegas Golden Knights by 10 points for first.

"We're all watching the standings, we're all watching the games at night, seeing who's winning and who's losing," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. "There's not much room for error, and it's tight, so we know how important these points were and it was a great job of guys continuing to battle back. We finally tied it there, and it's nice for us to get that extra point in overtime, it's really big for us right now."
Oscar Klefbom had a goal and an assist, Drake Caggiula and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored, Connor McDavid had two assists, and Al Montoya made 36 saves for the Oilers (30-35-5), who trail the Colorado Avalanche by 18 points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"It's a tough loss and I think I played many games better than I did tonight, but the puck went in and I was creating some offense," Klefbom said. "It's tough. I'd rather score no goals and win a game. It's a tough one."

Caggiula scored at 2:39 of the first period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead.
Hertl tied it 1-1 at 8:03 on a 3-on-1 rush following a turnover by Oilers center Leon Draisaitl at the Sharks blue line.
Klefbom made it 2-1 at 7:44 of the second period on a slap shot from the point.
Sharks coach Peter DeBoer challenged for goaltender interference by Oilers forward Pontus Aberg on Jones, but the goal was upheld after video review.
"I think early in the game we actually did a pretty good job. Maybe coming off a back-to-back we keep things simple pretty early," Nugent-Hopkins said, referring to a 1-0 loss at the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. "If we got away from that a little bit later, that's on us. Al made some big stops. It was a tight game the whole way through, it was just unfortunate we couldn't get that second point."

Couture tied it 2-2 on the power play at 10:01.
Nugent-Hopkins put Edmonton ahead 3-2 at 1:26 of third period, tipping a Klefbom point shot by Jones.
"We always know on the bench that we have the chance to come back," Couture said. "… We kept the pressure on in their end and were able to respond each time. Points are huge, especially when the teams around us continue to win. Tonight was big for us."

Goal of the game

Hertl's goal at 2:40 of overtime.

Save of the game

Jones stopping Ryan Strome at 1:35 of overtime.

Highlight of the game

Dillon's goal at 9:05 of the third period.

They said it

"It was a gutsy effort, it was a grind out there. We had a lot of things going on, we had some chances we didn't cash in on, they got a stick on a couple of tips, and we had the goalie interference one go against us. We lost a couple of guys to injury at different points, but we kept battling and found a way, and that's been the story of our group all year." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer
"Just a few individuals with some tough nights that created some turnovers. Our backup goaltender gives us a performance like that, I thought we should be able to close it off." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan

Need to know

It was the fifth time this season Couture has had three or more points in a game. … Sharks defenseman Brent Burns had a game-high 10 shots on goal but has not scored in his past 12 games. … McDavid has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in his past nine games.

What's next

Sharks: At the Calgary Flames on Friday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Oilers: At the Florida Panthers on Saturday (2 p.m. ET; FS-F, SNW, NHL.TV)