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Nabokov records third shutout in four games for Sharks

Mar 12, 2007 - 4:35 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Evgeni Nabokov is developing an ability to make shutouts extremely routine.

Nabokov made 22 saves for his third shutout in four games and Steve Bernier scored his 13th goal as the Sharks snapped a four-game home losing streak with a 3-0 victory over the slumping Edmonton Oilers.

San Jose (41-25-3) gained a split of the four-game season series with Edmonton and moved into a three-way tie with the Dallas Stars (40-23-5) and the Minnesota Wild (39-24-7) for fifth place in the Western Conference.

After blanking Dallas last Sunday and Minnesota two days later, Nabokov stopped nine shots in each of the first two periods and four in the third for his seventh shutout of the season and 34th of his career.

"We knew they were going to work their butts off and when you're in a position like this, they're trying to strip somebody," Nabokov said. "They played really hard. We've got to give them credit. ... We didn't get too many clean opportunities, but we were working like it was a playoff game and we found a way to win."

"He's a good goalie," Oilers defenseman Jason Smith said. "He made some big saves early in the game when we had some opportunities. We spent some time in the offensive zone in the first period, where he gave them the opportunity to stay in the game, and obviously they got the results that they wanted at the end of the night."

Moments after Jonathan Cheechoo had a goal disallowed for kicking the puck into the net, Bernier opened the scoring with 7:50 left in the first period. It was his second goal in 10 games after being recalled from Worcester of the American Hockey League on February 20.

"I don't know if I picked the team up but your job on the fourth line on the team is not to score, but bring energy," Bernier said. "You want to (force teams to) take penalties on you. You want to take shots, have scoring chances. When you score, it's a plus and I think we played pretty well."

Kyle McLaren doubled the margin with 3:51 remaining with a slap shot from the left point that deflected off Oilers defenseman Rob Davison past netminder Dwayne Roloson for his fifth tally of the campaign.

"They (the Oilers) work hard and they work till the end of the games, and we didn't get off to the start we wanted to." McLaren said. "But we got our goal and kept it patient, kept it solid defensively. Goaltending played well again and we were rewarded at the end of the game."

Blue-liner Matt Carle scored an empty-net goal on a power play with 40 seconds to go for San Jose, which moved within three wins of its single-season franchise record.

"We stayed patient the whole 60 minutes and yet we were still very aggressive, which is a great way to tune up for the stretch drive," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "They only had five defensemen. We wanted to wear them down and eventually, we did."

Roloson stopped 28 shots for the Oilers, last season's conference champions, who lost their seventh straight contest. They have been outscored, 28-5, during that stretch.

"It's a pretty obvious question but at the same time, you can't put that pressure on yourself," Roloson said. "You've got to go out and try to give your guys a chance to win or a chance to tie, however be it. You've just got to focus on that."

In many ways, the Oilers have not recovered since trading Ryan Smyth to the New York Islanders at the trade deadline February 27. They have dropped seven of their last nine road games and conclude their three-game swing Monday in Los Angeles.

"I was reasonably happy with the way we played tonight," Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said. "Sometimes, your objectives change in the course of the season where it's not all about winning and losing. It's about being in the right spots for one another and I was pretty happy with the way we did that tonight."

"It (stinks) anytime you don't get the results you want," Smith said. "I mean, you go out and work hard and you play and you expect to win games. You don't put your gear on at night to not get wins. We haven't had as many wins as we would like and we don't score goals like we want."