On Saturday night in San Jose, Cam Talbot made 27 saves for the Edmonton Oilers to help them end their opening round series with the Sharks and advance to the second round with a 3-1 win.
The Oilers won the series 4-2 and looked sharp and poised throughout most of it except for the 7-0 shelling in Game 4.
The Oilers got two goals in the middle frame from Leon Draisaitl and a breakaway from Anton Slepyshev.
“It takes work, it takes lessons, it takes repetition in practice, it takes pain,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “It doesn’t come easy, and for our team, we’re watching them grow up right in front of us, which is a great thing. We’ve been through a push into the playoffs. We’re through a round now. We learned how intense it is to close out a game.
“We learned how to respond after a blowout (a 7-0 loss in Game 4), we learned to manage ourselves throughout a series. We played in a hostile environment. So that’s great to this point. And that’s just the first round. It gets tougher as it goes.”
Connor McDavid added an empty net to seal it.
“It’s tough to be up two and give up a goal with seven minutes left. That’s stressful. I think we’re a little bit more mature than people give us credit for, and I think we showed that tonight,” McDavid said.
Patrick Marleau had cut the Oilers lead to 2-1 with a third period goal but the Sharks were unable to generate much of anything Saturday and seemed resigned to the loss.
“The way hockey is sometimes, you get on that roll,” Sharks center Joe Thornton said. “And this year the injury bug kind of hit us and it kind of hurt us. But no excuses. They played a great series, and hats off to them.”
Certainly age took a step back in San Jose as the younger, hungrier Oilers took their next step into the second round.
“It was definitely nerve-wracking, but I think we stayed composed and disciplined in our game, especially in our penalty kill,” the Oilers Milan Lucic said. “[Talbot] made some huge saves for us. They got some tips and some bounces in front, and we were able to get some saves and not allow some second opportunities.
“Definitely made it a little bit harder on ourselves, but you knew they were going to push and fight for their lives, but at the end of the day, this one feels good.”
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Sharks highlights | RELATED: Complete Edmonton vs. San Jose series coverage]
Martin Jones made 18 saves in taking the loss.
“I knew we had to control McDavid, and we did. Our guys did a fantastic job of trying to limit his time and space. Their depth guys found some goals … We did that last year on our playoff run,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said of the Sharks effort and game plane.
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