Sharks break out in rout of Oilers
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The San Jose Sharks broke their goal-scoring drought with a vengeance on Tuesday to run the Edmonton Oilers right out of SAP Center.
San Jose's 7-0 victory in Game 4 followed consecutive shutout losses and tied the Western Conference quarterfinal at two wins apiece. A pivotal Game 5 is Thursday in Edmonton, and the series is guaranteed to return to the South Bay for Game 6 on Saturday.
Captain Joe Pavelski set a franchise record for the fastest goal at the outset of a playoff game -- just 15 seconds in -- in addition to scoring later on the power play and contributing an assist. Logan Couture added two goals, while defenseman Brent Burns chipped in with his first points of the series -- three assists.
Patrick Marleau, Marcus Sorensen and David Schlemko also scored for the Sharks.
Goalie Martin Jones earned his fourth career playoff shutout with 23 saves.
The struggling San Jose power play set a record as well, converting four of eight chances (the previous mark was three set five times in the playoffs). And the seven goals total tied a club record set twice previously -- once at home (April 20, 2014) against Los Angeles and once on the road (April 30, 1999) at Colorado.
After taking a 2-0 lead after the first period on the quick goal by Pavelski and a goal by Couture midway through the period, San Jose broke the game open with a four-goal second period.
Marleau started the onslaught with his first of the playoffs with a power-play strike at 2:02 after Edmonton defenseman Oscar Klefbom had a failed clear.
Sorensen was all alone at the side of the net to deposit a rebound of a shot from Schlemko at 9:46 and suddenly the Sharks had more goals in less than half of Game 4 than they had scored in the first three games combined.
When Couture scored his second of the night at 12:52 to make it 5-0, after Jannik Hansen demolished Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson to force a turnover, the Oilers replaced starting goalie Cam Talbot with backup Laurent Brossoit.
Edmonton center Leon Draisaitl earned a game-misconduct on top of his major for spearing Chris Tierney, and the Sharks struck once on the five-minute advantage as Pavelski potted his second of the night by redirecting a Burns drive at 16:46.
Schlemko capped the scoring with a power-play strike at 6:45 of the third period.
Talbot stopped 19 of the 24 shots he faced. Brossoit gave up two goals on eight shots.
NOTES: Searching for offense, Sharks coach Peter DeBoer opened Game 4 with all new forward lines without changing any personnel from the previous game. The top two lines featured Joe Thornton centering Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski while Logan Couture was between Joonas Donskoi and Jannik Hansen. The two bottom lines were Timo Meier-Tomas Hertl-Melker Karlsson and Marcus Sorensen-Chris Tierney-Joel Ward. ... Edmonton made no lineup changes from Friday's Game 2 win to Sunday's Game 3. ... C Micheal Haley, RW Kevin Labanc, D Dylan DeMelo and LW Mikkel Boedker were San Jose's healthy scratches. ... LW Matt Hendricks, RW Iiro Pakarinen, LW Jujhar Khaira and D Eric Gryba did not dress for Edmonton.