The Edmonton Oilers wrap up the regular season Wednesday night in San Jose, looking to complete a sweep of their season series with the Sharks.
Edmonton (47-29-5, 99 points), locked in the third seed in the Pacific Division, have won all three meetings this season, with San Jose limiting the Sharks to two goals per game.
Wednesday is the third meeting between the Sharks and Oilers this month. Edmonton edged San Jose 3-2 in the Bay Area on April 3 and doubled up the Sharks 4-2 last Friday on home ice.
The Oilers are coming off a 5-0 home ice loss Monday to the Los Angeles Kings — their first-round opponent in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“Our goal was to make the playoffs, that was our first goal, and then go from there,” Edmonton forward Corey Perry said. “We know who we’re playing. We open up on the road, so we’ll go out and do a job on the road.
“It’s not the first time or the last time we’re going to open up a series on the road,” he continued. “We’ve been decent on the road and we know how to play just a boring style of hockey.”
Calvin Pickard made 31 saves in the loss as Edmonton played without top scorers Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, and blue-liners Mattias Ekholm and Jake Walman.
Ekholm (undisclosed injury) will miss the first round of the playoffs, while McDavid and Hyman could play Wednesday in San Jose. Draisaitl is expected to be ready for Game 1 against Los Angeles.
Pickard is 22-10-1 in 36 appearances this season with a .900 save percentage and a 2.71 goals-against average.
Fellow goaltender Stuart Skinner is 25-18-4 in 50 games, posting an .894 save percentage and 2.87 GAA.
The Oilers will be without Darnell Nurse on Wednesday. The defenseman was suspended one game by the NHL on Tuesday, a day after he delivered a cross-check to the head of Kings forward Quinton Byfield.
San Jose heads into the season finale looking to wrap up the schedule on a winning note.
The Sharks (20-49-12, 52 points), last in the overall standings, are winless in 10 straight (0-7-3), with their last win coming March 27 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a shootout.
On Monday, the Sharks were edged 2-1 in overtime by the Vancouver Canucks.
Macklin Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, scored the lone goal for San Jose, and Alexandar Georgiev made 35 saves.
Georgiev is 7-18-4 in 30 games this season, posting an .873 save percentage and 3.95 GAA.
Celebrini, whose 25th goal came on a power play, has a team-leading 63 points in 69 games this season.
“I thought we competed,” said Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky. “I thought we had some pretty good effort. I just think at times our brains weren’t there, which I don’t know if that’s to be expected or not, but it’s the National Hockey League, so your brains have to be on. But for us to be in the hockey game and gave ourselves another chance to win one and just came up a little short again.”
Tyler Toffoli paces San Jose with 30 goals in 77 contests, while William Eklund leads the way with 41 assists in 76 games.
San Jose forwards Zack Ostapchuk and Thomas Bordeleau and defensemen Jan Rutta and Jack Thompson are all day-to-day after getting injured in Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the host Calgary Flames.
–Field Level Media
