Oilers score twice shorthanded, beat Sharks 2-0 in Game 2

Talbot secured his first career playoff win, after Wednesday’s Game 1 was his first career playoff start. NOTES: For Game 1, the Oilers sold concourse passes for $80 (Canadian) each, which admitted a limited number of fans to the arena, but without views of the ice.

As the Sharks get ready for Game 2 on Friday at Rogers Place, once again, having some past experiences to lean on could come into play.

The Sharks were 26-3-1 when leading after the first period this season. Hansen gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead 61 seconds into the game.

Playing Game 1 without veteran center Joe Thornton, who missed the final three games of the regular season with a knee injury, the Sharks appeared to be limping into the postseason. Sensing a blowout, the partisan gathering began taunting Jones, but that was the last time the Oilers were heard from.

The Sharks have an all-time Game 2 record of 16-19, including 7-12 on the road.

“What we’ve done all year is just believe in the process and stay with it and believe in one another”. We’re fine. We’re in a great situation. It was a dominant performance by the Oilers and particularly by Kassian, a fourth-line winger who drove the net effectively and delivered bone-jarring hits on the Sharks’ Brenden Dillon and Logan Couture.

The Sharks’ power play has suffered from the absence of dominant centre Joe Thornton. “Guys just played comfortable (this time), played more of our style of game”, he said. But despite a long history with numerous key players on the Sharks, McLellan sees little advantage. The Sharks made no changes to their lineup from Game 1.

The din grew louder when Milan Lucic gobbled up a rebound off a shot by Mark Letestu and blasted it past Jones with 2:53 left in the first period.

The Sharks might not enjoy the same type of advantages in Game 2.

NBC hockey analyst Eddie Olczyk liked the way the Sharks paid attention to details throughout their playoff run in 2016. Good news is the Sharks defense is deep and they have the edge in experience.

“You’re talking about guys, they’ve seen that before”, DeBoer said. “You can’t take anything for granted”.

ABOUT THE OILERS: Captain Connor McDavid notched an assist in the series opener after ending the regular season with a 14-game point streak – the longest in the National Hockey League in 2016-17. After getting some of their playoff jitters out of the way, the Sharks dominated most of the game. “It just seemed the last two periods we were just hanging on”.

“He was unbelievable”, said captain Connor McDavid of Kassian.

“I can’t say enough good things about the penalty kill tonight”, said Talbot.

When the puck drops in Edmonton tonight, the San Jose Sharks will be one of the 16 with an eye keenly on that shiny silver prize.

“We got so close”, said Elaine Nacht of Campbell.

“It was a big win”, said San Jose forward Tomas Hertl, who assisted on the tying goal early in the third. Eventually they’re going to strike and they’ll strike often. We saw the same out of Milan Lucic previous year in the first round against L.A. That stuff, you know what, you’ve got to play through that stuff.