Taylor Hall's overtime heroics gave the Edmonton Oilers their longest winning streak of the season and coach Todd McLellan a victory in his first game against his former team. Hall converted a centering pass from Leon Draisaitl 3:59 into overtime lifting the Oilers to a 4-3 victory against the San Jose Sharks at Rexall Place. McLellan coached the Sharks for seven seasons before leaving after San Jose missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2014-15; he was quickly hired by the Oilers. Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for Edmonton. Goaltender Anders Nilsson made 25 saves to earn his ninth win of the season.
Justin Braun, Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski scored for San Jose and goaltender Martin Jones made 16 saves. The loss was the fifth in a row for the Sharks.
Draisaitl scored the only goal through the first two periods, giving Edmonton the lead at 6:22 of the second when he took a backhand pass from Teddy Purcell and fired a shot through Jones' pads for his ninth goal of the season. The Oilers had a couple of good chance to extend their lead early in the third period when Eberle just missed picking the far side on a 2-on-1 rush and Brandon Davidson hit the post with a point shot.
The Sharks capitalized on the missed chances by the Oilers when Braun tied the game at 3:56, taking a pass in the slot from Marleau and lifting a backhand over Nilsson. Eberle restored the Oilers' the lead at 8:21, taking a pass from Jujhar Khaira in front and firing a backhand shot over Jones' shoulder. DeBoer used his challenge, contending Jones had been interfered with, but the goal stood after a review. Marleau tied the game at 11:07, finishing off an odd-man rush and tapping in a pass from Tomas Hertl at the side of the Oilers' net.
Pavelski gave San Jose a 3-2 lead at 12:37, batting a Joonas Donskoi centering pass out of midair past Nilsson. But Nugent-Hopkins was credited with the tying goal at 15:23 when he tipped Iiro Pakarinen's shot past Jones. The goal was originally credited to Pakarinen but was changed after the game.
Each team had chances in overtime before Hall scored his 12th goal of the season. Hall also had an assist to give him a team-leading 30 points.
The Oilers conclude a five-game homestand Friday against the New York Rangers. Prior to the game, the Oilers will raise a banner to the rafters at Rexall Place in honor of Glen Sather, who served as president, general manager and coach. He guided the franchise to five Stanley Cup championships before leaving to go to the Rangers in 2000.
The Sharks return home to host the Minnesota Wild on Saturday before beginning a five-game road trip. Sharks center Logan Couture, who returned from a fractured right fibula at the ankle against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, did not play in the third period or overtime.
Sharks Bites
Peter DeBoer: "I've got it at lower body. That's all I'm going to say about that [Couture].""I was real happy with our effort, I thought we could have had two or three in the first, we came ready to play. Their goalie was good and it was a good hockey game. But for us playing back-to-back and four [games] in six nights, I thought we gave a [heck] of an effort and probably deserved better. We had chances all night, they just weren't going in for us, but we knew if we stuck with it, eventually, we would get rewarded."
"We thought it was a little bit of a long shot. But our goalie couldn't push out to get position on the play. So we felt at that point, it was worth a call."
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