The Oilers are getting pretty good at this.
It took them all 60 minutes of regulation and more, but they managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat yet again this afternoon against the San Jose Sharks. The result was their second 3-2 comeback overtime win in the past three days.
The Oilers could be forgiven for taking their opponent lightly. After running a monstrously difficult gauntlet of elite teams over the past ten days, they must have been relieved to face the league’s 31st-ranked team. But the Sharks wouldn’t just give it to them.
In fact, they were in the driver’s seat after the first ten minutes. Luke Kunin got them started with a one-timer from the slot, though Zach Hyman quickly countered with his ninth goal in eight games to tie the game up at 1.
But the Sharks retook the lead just over a minute later, thanks to Jan Rutta’s first goal of the season. The next 50 minutes were maddening, as the Oilers threw absolutely everything they had at the Sharks — outshooting them 23-7 in the second period alone — with nothing to show for it.
Special credit goes to Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov. The 22-year-old Russian was magnificent in his third start of the season and just the sixth of his career, giving the Oilers nothing as they cycled through the Sharks’ zone for minutes at a time, peppering him all the while.
The Sharks acquired him over the summer with hopes of making him their goalie of the future, and today he showed why the future is so bright in San Jose.
The Oilers also didn’t do themselves any favours, missing several wide-open nets as they ran circles around the Sharks. Leon Draisaitl was especially unlucky, missing two golden chances late in the third.
“Shit,” Draisaitl laughed when asked what goes through his mind when he misses a chance like that. “Not a great feeling.”
But the Oilers were eventually rewarded for their hard work. In the dying seconds of regulation, Corey Perry found Mattias Ekholm in the slot, and Ekholm finally beat Askarov to tie the game 2-2 and send it to overtime.
Draisaitl then got the chance to make up for his earlier missed opportunities. It took him just 18 seconds to score the overtime winner and cap off another Oilers comeback win.
After all that dominance with nothing to show for it, it took the Oilers just 35 seconds of game-time to score the tying and winning goals.
Though this ends Draisaitl’s seven-game multi-point streak, he still notched his 24th goal and fourth overtime winner, leading the league in both categories.
This is the Oilers’ 11th win in their past 14 games, with just tomorrow’s tilt with the Ottawa Senators standing between them and the Christmas break. A win tomorrow, along with a Los Angeles Kings loss, would put them in second place in the Pacific Division near the halfway mark of the season.
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