NHL Recap: San Jose Sharks defeat Edmonton Oilers 2-1
The San Jose Sharks scored a 2-1 win over Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night to improve to 18-11-5.
Antero Niittymaki, who has now won four straight starts, stopped 26 of 27 shots to beat the Edmonton for the 3rd time this season and gave the Sharks their first three-game winning streak.
Logan Couture and Dan Boyle scored for the Sharks, who have won four of their last six games. San Jose have now captured nine of last 10 games against the Oilers. Couture has just seven assists but he still gets plenty of support from his teammates as NHL
Rookie of the Year at this point in the season.
"I don't get to see the others play every other night but for me, hands down he's the best rookie this year," Boyle said of Couture. "He's been playing so well and he's a two-way player. He does it on both ends. You can say he's been our best player this
year."
Left winger Dustin Penner scored for the Edmonton, who lost for the 3rd time in 4 games. Oilers’ goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin allowed two goals on 30 shots, but Oilers’ three-game winning streak on the road ended.
At the 13:15 mark of the second period, the Sharks opened the scoring on Couture's 18th goal of the season. Clowe got one defenseman to commit before passing across the crease, giving Couture who had a clean shot to the stick side past Khabibulin.
"He's so smart for his age," said defenseman Dan Boyle, who scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal less than four minutes after the 21-year-old Couture gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead. "He can do it on both ends. It was nice to see him score that
goal, because he deserved it."
Later in the middle stanza, Dan Boyle gave the Sharks a two-goal edge. Boyle whipped in a power-play marker that ricocheted in off the shin pad of Oilers centre Colin Fraser.
At 14:48, Oilers defenseman Ryan Whitney was whistled for holding the stick. After that, the Sharks went to work in their offensive zone but a number of scoring shots were stopped by goaltender Khabibulin.
Late in the third period, Dustin Penner’s 11th goal cut Oilers’ deficit in half, with an extra attacker on the ice, Whitney hit a shot that found its way past San Jose goalie Anterio Nittymaki. The goal was awarded to Penner who was parked in front of the
net, not Whitney, who has not scored since 11 April of the 2009-10 season. The Sharks used several late clears and held on for the win.
"It's just one of those special teams’ games that have been killing us for a while now," Whitney said.
Tags: