In San Jose, the Edmonton Oilers found a way to get a win for their new bench boss, Ken Hitchcock..
The Oilers trailed 3-2 n the third period but tied it up at 3-3 to force extra time before Leon Draisaitl scored with less than a minute gone in the extra frame.
“I was more worried that it was past my bedtime and I wasn’t going to be able to stay up,” Hitchcock said. “I don’t think I’ve seen a third period all year out West. But for me, we just got better and better as the game went on. We got better in the second, we were really good in the third.
“We really got on the grind. There’s a lot of weight and size in this group, a lot more than I can remember, and we started to lean pretty hard in the third period and used it, and it was very, very effective. It was a great win.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid scored for the Oilers.
“That’s what it has to be (a wake-up call),” McDavid said. “Anytime you bring in a new coach, that’s kind of the last option I would say before shipping everyone out. This is a chance for us to come together and turn this around.”
Drake Caggiula tied the game early in the third period.
“I think it’s big for us as a group as players, and obviously it’s huge to have him come in on the first day and get that two points for him,” Nugent-Hopkins said.
Mikko Koskinen made 22 saves to get the win.
Joonas Donskoi, Marcus Sorensen and Logan Couture scored for the Sharks.
“Tonight’s a disappointing one because I thought if we had gotten a little bit better effort from everybody, from 20 guys, we should have gotten two points,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “We didn’t have enough participants tonight.”
San Jose dropped to 11-7-4 with the loss.
“You never want to give up leads,” Couture said. “We turned one over on their blue line. Especially when you’re out there against McDavid, you can’t do that. There are too many odd-man rushes. It wasn’t horrible tonight. It was better than it has been, but still too many.”
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Sharks highlights]
Martin Jones made 19 saves in taking the loss.
“This was the first time we’ve seen them this year. We knew they’d be desperate and a little smarter,” Joe Pavelski said after the loss.
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