My 16th NHL Game: Sharks 5, Oilers 4 (2/28/26)

 I made my return to the Shark Tank for the first time on about a month to attend my seventh Sharks game this season, and it was definitely one of the most incredible hockey games I have ever attended. It was my second time seeing my Sharks host the Edmonton Oilers in person, and since the promotional theme was Educators Appreciation, everyone in attendance and I received free insulated book bags. As for this routine team store visit, I purchased a Yaroslav Askarov t-shirt and a pack of pens. As for warmups, it was great to see Shakir Mukhamadullin and Pavol Regenda back in the Sharks lineup.

The Sharks began this contest with their fourth line on the ice, which I was not initially anticipating. They opened the scoring at around eight and a half minutes into the first period. Macklin Celebrini caught Connor Ingram out of his crease at the right time and found the back of the net for his 29th goal of the season, assisted by Will Smith. A few minutes later, Michael Misa scored on the power play for his third goal of the season, assisted by Tyler Toffoli, to extend the Sharks’ lead to two.  The Oilers responded soon after on a power play goal by Leon Draisaitl to get themselves on the board. The Sharks restored their two-goal lead with about three minutes left in the opening period on Barclay Goodrow’s fifth goal of the season, assisted by Zack Ostapchuk and John Klingberg. 

Edmonton made it a one-goal game via Evan Bouchard late in the second period. San Jose may not have won the second period, but they survived it and came out of it still maintaining the lead. The Sharks and Oilers traded goals during the first half of the third period. Trent Frederic tied the game at three early in the third period, followed by Alex Wennberg scoring his 11th goal of the season to make it 4-3 Sharks, assisted by Philipp Kurashev and Mario Ferraro. The Oilers then evened the game at four on a slapshot by Jake Walman, while the Sharks scored the game-winning goal soon after via Shakir Mukhamadullin's fourth goal of the season, assisted by William Eklund and Michael Misa. The primary assist on the Mukhamadullin game-winner was William Eklund's 100th career assist, as announced by the Sharks on the jumbotron. Every time the Oilers tied the game in the third period, some doubt would creep in my mind about the Sharks' ability to finish this game strong and with the win. Fortunately, they had answers for every Oilers third-period equalizer, and I knew deep down that Team Teal was going to win. The game-winning goal and his miraculous save late in the first period earned Shakir Mukhamadullin the first star of the game honors, while Michael Misa's two-point performance earned him the third star of the game. Yaroslav Askarov finished his day with 20 saves on 24 shots against, some of which were huge and important in maintaining and not fully giving up the Sharks' lead in this one. 

The Sharks got the job done against two of the best players in the world and a high-powered Oilers offense. It was great to see the Sharks get contributions from a variety of different players in this complete statement victory to snap their five-game losing streak and climb back into the playoff picture. It also continued the trend of the Sharks winning one, losing one, and vice versa against teams I have seen them host twice in person. Their record improves to 7-5-3 when I am at their games as well. I greatly enjoyed my second time seeing the Sharks face the Oilers, and I am very curious to see what's in store for the Sharks ahead of next week's trade deadline and how the remainder of this regular season plays out for them. Regular game reviews resume on Sunday, when the Sharks host the Winnipeg Jets in the second of back-to-back afternoon home games at 1 pm PT. 

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