Sharks rally vs. Oilers but miss opportunity to improve playoff chances

Curtis Pashelka, The Mercury News on Mar 17, 2026

Published in Hockey

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The San Jose Sharks missed an opportunity Tuesday to finish a cross-continent road trip on a positive note to make up some ground in their bid for a playoff spot.

After rallying to tie the game in the second period, the Sharks allowed net-front goals to Max Jones and Zach Hyman in the first 8:12 of the third period in a 5-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.

Jones’ go-ahead goal came 4:49 into the first period as he got position on Sharks defenseman John Klingberg, picked up a rebound, and tucked a shot past Alex Nedeljkovic for his second goal of the season.

Hyman then scored his 29th goal of the season off another rebound. Nedeljkovic stopped a shot from the point by Matt Savoie, only to see Hyman collect the rebound and backhand the shot for an insurance goal at the 8:12 mark.

The Sharks were unable to respond, finishing a five-game road trip with a 2-3-0 record and now are six points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for third place in the Pacific Division. Stuck on 70 points, the Sharks also remained one point behind the Seattle Kraken for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.

Nedeljkovic finished with 32 saves, and Dmitry Orlov, Pavol Regenda and Kiefer Sherwood all scored for the Sharks (32-28-6), who return home to face the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday and the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

The goals from Regenda and Sherwood in the second period tied the game after the Sharks trailed 3-1.

Regenda’s goal came after a Sharks forecheck as Adam Gaudette fished a puck out of the corner to the right of the Oilers net and got it back to the point. Mario Ferraro fired the puck at the net, and Regenda was able to tip it past goalie Connor Ingram at the 8:17 mark to cut the Oilers’ lead to one.

Just over six minutes later, Sherwood capitalized on some Oilers bad luck, as a rim around the boards by Darnell Nurse wound up past both Adam Henrique and Connor Murphy at the blue line. Sherwood picked up the loose puck in the offensive zone and beat Ingram low to the blocker side for his 21st goal of the season and his fourth in eight games.

In the first period, with the Sharks leading 1-0 on Orlov’s goal, the Oilers responded with goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor Murphy and Vasily Podkolzin in a span of 4:18 to take a two-goal lead.

The Sharks seemed to get a bit of a break, both in the short term and the big picture, with Tuesday’s announcement by the Oilers that center Leon Draisaitl would miss the rest of the NHL regular season because of a lower-body injury.

Draisaitl was injured in the Oilers’ game against the Nashville Predators on Sunday on a hit by Ozzy Wiesblatt, the Sharks’ 2020 first-round draft pick, during the first period. Draisaitl, the NHL’s fourth-leading scorer with 97 points, did not return.

Draisaitl has 43 points in 38 career games against the Sharks, including four points in two games earlier this season.

Nedeljkovic has been the Sharks’ best goaltender in recent weeks, owning, since early January, an 8-1-1 record and a .924 save percentage in his last 10 decisions before Tuesday.

Alexander Wennberg, who assisted on Orlov’s goal, returned to the Sharks’ lineup after he missed Sunday’s game against the Ottawa Senators with an upper-body injury.