• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Oilers use power-play goals to sink Sharks

Jan 11, 2007 - 8:00 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- The Edmonton Oilers finally took advantage of their power-play opportunities.

Jarret Stoll and defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron scored power-play goals to help guide the Oilers to a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks.

The Oilers improved to 3-0-2 in their last five contests.

Stoll and Bergeron both scored with the man advantage in the first period for Edmonton, which entered with the league's 27th-ranked power play. The club finished 2-for-9 with the extra skater while limiting San Jose - which owns the NHL's top power play - to one goal on four chances.

"The first couple of goals were huge, but our power play was ready to start the game," Stoll said. "I thought, in the first period, sometimes maybe you are not prepared to go on the power play. A lot of talk was about their power play coming into the game. We knew we had to shut that down, first of all. We were ready right from the start of the game."

"It's hard to believe that you spend as much time as you do in the offensive zone, and that more penalties weren't called on them," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "(At) one point, it was 7-0 (in penalties), and the shots were 20 to six or seven. Every time they came in our end, it was deemed a penalty."

Bergeron gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead just 95 seconds into the game, when his slap shot from just inside the blue line beat Evgeni Nabokov. Stoll made it 3-0 at 11:19 with a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle that got past the former Calder Trophy-winning goaltender.

"Like I said, whatever it is, unlucky, the good thing is, I don't think all those goals are bad," Nabokov said. "I have to find a way to stop those, especially those first shots. But again, it's hockey."

Defenseman Mathieu Roy netted his first career goal and Dwayne Roloson made 32 saves for Edmonton, which avoided its fourth straight overtime game. Roloson was especially busy in the first and third periods, stopping 12 of 13 shots in each session.

"They are a great offensive team," Roloson said. "We were able to minimize the quality chances they got and kept them to the outside, for the most part. We had a lot of young defensemen playing tonight, and they all did a great job, especially against Joe (Thornton) and Patrick (Marleau), two great offensive guys."

Marcel Goc and reigning Maurice Richard Trophy winner Jonathan Cheechoo scored for the Sharks, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.

"We just got away from the way we play in the first period and we went down, 3-0. I still thought we had a good first period," Cheechoo said. "We were outshooting them and we were moving our legs and had a lot of chances, and we kinda got away from that in the second. You're not going to score if you're not getting that many shots."

Cheechoo, who has 14 goals this season, has three tallies and three assists over his last four games after a stretch in which he had only one assist in his previous five contests.

"Sometimes they go in for you, and when they do, they come in bunches," Cheechoo said. "It's just finding your stride and working hard and keep doing what you're doing, and not getting away from anything."