Sharks score seven, hand Oilers fifth straight loss

EDMONTON --Erik Karlsson had a goal and three assists in his return from a two-game suspension for the San Jose Sharks in a 7-4 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Karlsson has 14 points (one goal, 13 assists) during a nine-game point streak.
"It's nice to be back," Karlsson said. "It's never fun to be out of the lineup, especially for the reason that I was out for. … But I made the most of it and I watched the games and sometimes it's good to watch the game from afar, too."
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Logan Couture and Melker Karlsson each scored two goals, Joonas Donskoi and Tomas Hertl each had a goal and an assist, and Brent Burns and Barclay Goodrow each had two assists for San Jose (21-12-7), which is 9-2-2 in its past 13 games. Martin Jones made 22 saves.

Connor McDavid scored two goals, Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist and Ty Rattie had three assists for Edmonton (18-17-3), which has lost five straight. Cam Talbot made 33 saves.
"We've been giving up goals, giving up chances, giving up shots. We obviously have to find a way to stop the bleeding back there," McDavid said. "When we were winning games, we were giving up one, two, and some nights no goals against. We're not a team that's going to outscore opponents, we have to check our way to wins."
McDavid scored at 6:28 of the first period to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead. A video review initiated by the Situation Room could not determine if Rattie's initial shot completely crossed the goal line, but McDavid's rebound attempt in the crease did.

Donskoi scored 16 seconds later to tie it 1-1 on a 3-on-1, and Hertl gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead at 10:13.
"It was a good game for us. I think we took advantage of a team with some depth issues on defense and some young guys playing in key spots," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "To our credit, we showed up and took advantage of what we needed to take advantage of and I thought we did a good job putting some pressure on them."
Couture made it 3-1 at 6:39 of the second period, and Erik Karlsson scored five-hole on a point shot through a screen at 18:45 to extend the lead to 4-1.

"We got owned in our own zone," Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "They are a [heck] of a hockey club and they've dialed it up through the last little bit, and they owned us in our own zone. They won the 1-on-1s, they knocked us out of the box, they won the net front. They owned us."
Melker Karlsson made it 5-1 at 2:41 of the third period, and Couture scored shorthanded at 8:25 off a pass from Evander Kane to make it 6-1.
"We came out [in the third] and we put them away," Kane said. "We gave up a couple late, but the game was over early in that third period. We came out hard and we kept our forecheck going and we spent a lot of time in their end. I thought we played a solid game."
Caleb Jones scored his first NHL goal at 10:40 to make it 6-2, but Melker Karlsson scored at 14:09 to push the lead to 7-2.
Draisaitl scored at 16:53 to make it 7-3, and McDavid batted the puck out of the air in front at 19:54 to cut it to 7-4.
"After you take a [butt] kicking like that, it should wake you up and realize you need to get things going in the right direction again," Oilers forward Milan Lucic said. "It's hard, but we had earned our way back into a playoff spot and it is on us that we are back on the outside looking in again. It's up to us to get ourselves back in it."

They said it

"It was nice to have him back. You can see his impact on our team with the players around him. … You take him for granted a little bit. You realize when you take him out the hole is there, and I think every week he's getting more comfortable here." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer on defenseman Erik Karlsson
"We've been too streaky. We've had runs even before [coach Ken Hitchcock] got here when we were really good. We won a bunch in a row, then we lose a bunch. Then Hitch comes in and we win a bunch (5-0-1 previous six) and now we're back to losing a bunch. We have to find a way to be more even keel." -- Oilers captain Connor McDavid

Need to know

It was the third time the Sharks have scored at least seven goals in a game this season. … McDavid has factored in on seven of Edmonton's past nine goals (two goals, five assists).

What's next

Sharks: At the Calgary Flames on Monday (9 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, NBCSA, NHL.TV)
Oilers: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Monday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, TSN3, NHL.TV)