Lucic hat trick carries Oilers past Sharks
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Milan Lucic scored a third-period natural hat trick to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-2 win over the injury-depleted San Jose Sharks on Thursday at SAP Center.
Lucic scored his 21st, 22nd and 23rd goals, two on power plays and one at even strength. Defenseman Oscar Klefbom provided assists on all four Edmonton goals as the Oilers moved two points ahead of San Jose in what is likely going to be a first-round playoff matchup between the same two teams next week.
San Jose (45-29-7) was eliminated from Pacific Division title contention when Anaheim beat Chicago earlier in the evening. Edmonton (45-26-9) has an outside shot at catching the Ducks, but it is unlikely.
The Sharks, held to a season-low 15 shots, could pass the Oilers but only if they beat Calgary on Saturday while Edmonton loses consecutive games in regulation to lowly Vancouver on the weekend.
Lucic redirected Klefbom's drive from the right point past Sharks goalie Martin Jones at 4:26 of the third, just seven seconds into a power play awarded for San Jose having too many men on the ice.
Then Lucic scored again at 7:57 by gaining position in front of San Jose defenseman David Schlemko to tap in a Klefbom feed after the visitors broke on 3-on-2. And Lucic capped the scoring with a power-play strike at 16:31.
Edmonton's Connor McDavid scored a goal and added an assist to bring his NHL-leading total to 97 points.
The teams traded goals in the second period as San Jose nursed a 2-1 lead into the third despite getting outshot 21-10.
Edmonton tied the game at 4:40 when McDavid tapped in his 30th goal on a weak-side rebound to cap a long Oilers cycle against a tired San Jose unit. Klefbom's shot from the left point struck both Tomas Hertl and Justin Braun before caroming off the left pad of Jones right to an unmarked McDavid.
Held to just six shots for the first 30 minutes, the Sharks broke back on top when Brent Burns scored his on-going career-high 29th goal at 12:30.
Hertl helped San Jose win an offensive-zone draw taken by Mikkel Boedker by tapping the puck to Burns at the points. Lucic darted toward Burns, but was unable to block the defenseman's wrist shot that beat screened Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot (13 saves).
The Sharks scored the only goal of the opening period, and despite getting outshot 10-5, the hosts dominated the first 20 minutes.
Edmonton was on its heels early when forced to kill consecutive penalties -- a too-many-men minor and a David Desharnais slash of Jannik Hansen.
But just four seconds after Desharnais exited the box, San Jose scored when Joel Ward tipped a Schlemko shot from the middle of the blue line through the legs of Talbot at 6:08. Ward's second goal in as many games gave him 10 to become San Jose's seventh double-figure goal-scorer.
The Oilers piled up half of their period's shots on a late power play, but Jones (28 saves) was up to the task in stopping all five directed his way while short-handed. San Jose's Micheal Haley was levied an unsportsmanlike minor on top of his fight with Lucic, who leveled Chris Tierney with a clean yet thunderous open-ice hit.
NOTES: San Jose's top two injured centers -- Joe Thornton (left knee) and Logan Couture (mouth) -- participated in a morning skate for the second straight day but continued to be sidelined. Thornton has missed two games, Couture six, and both are termed by coach Peter DeBoer as day-to-day. ... Each team made a change to their fourth lines as Oilers RW Iiro Pakarinen subbed in for Anton Slepyshev while San Jose LW Micheal Haley replaced rookie Timo Meier. ... Edmonton G Cam Talbot won his 41st game of the season to break Grant Fuhr's franchise record of 40 set in 1988-89.