The San Jose Sharks will look to keep pace in the Western Conference wild-card race when they conclude a six-game homestand against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night.
William Eklund collected a goal and an assist in San Jose’s 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. Kiefer Sherwood and Will Smith also tallied for the Sharks, who have won five of their last six games.
With the win, San Jose (37-32-7, 81 points) is three points behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with two games in hand.
“Take it, move on. That’s just what you do this time of year,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Big two points, we’ll look at it, we’ll make the corrections and move on.”
With his assist on Smith’s tally, Macklin Celebrini (107 points) tied Jimmy Carson for the third-most points in a single season by a teenager. The 19-year-old trails only Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky (137, 1979-80) and Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby (120, 2006-07).
“That was a great all-around play. Good forecheck, and then (Celebrini) made a play down to (Collin Graf) and Graf made a great behind-the-back pass to me,” Smith said.
Celebrini paces the Sharks in goals (41) and assists (66) through 76 games.
Alexander Wennberg extended his career-high point streak to seven games (five goals, four assists) with his assist on Sherwood’s second-period goal.
Wednesday is the fourth and final meeting of the season between the Pacific Division rivals.
The Oilers have won two of the first three meetings of the season, picking up a 4-3 overtime win on Jan. 29 and a 5-3 victory on March 17. San Jose won its last meeting with Edmonton on home ice, 5-4 on Feb. 28.
The Oilers (39-29-10, 88 points) enter Wednesday’s contest in the Bay Area after squandering multiple leads and losing 6-5 in overtime to the host Utah Mammoth on Tuesday night.
Edmonton, which is 5-1-1 in its last seven games, sit atop the Pacific Division standings, holding the tiebreaker over the Vegas Golden Knights.
“We obviously had a lead and weren’t able to maintain it but showed some good composure in the third to find our way to get that one point, but you want the two every night,” defenseman Darnell Nurse said.
“We’ll build off the things that were good tonight and get ready for (Wednesday). No time to sit on it.”
Captain Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist. Curtis Lazar, Colton Dach, Vasily Podkolzin and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for Edmonton.
Evan Bouchard notched his 68th assist of the season to pass Hall of Famer Paul Coffey for the fourth most in a season by an Oilers defenseman.
Edmonton jumped out to a 3-1 advantage, led 4-3 and held a 5-4 edge in the third period but was unable to hang on in regulation.
“We had a few leads tonight and (Utah) was able to respond very quickly,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said.
“It was unfortunate. It was nice to see offense was there, we had the goals, but too many chances against.”
