SURGING SHARKS BEAT OILERS BEHIND NABOKOV

Despite a season full of injuries to key players, the San Jose Sharks have found a way to persevere.  After beating the host Edmonton Oilers 2-1 at Rexall Place on Thursday night, the Sharks are in the drivers’ seat to capture the President’s Trophy as the team with the NHL’s best regular season record.  As has been the case so often this season it was a combination of timely goal scoring and the solid goaltending of Evgeni Nabokov paving the road to victory.

The Sharks quickly gave Nabokov a lead to work with as Jonathan Cheechoo scored his 11^th goal of the year just 52 seconds into the opening period, assisted by Jeremy Roenick and Rob Blake.  Dan Boyle’s power play goal midway through the second period assisted by Joe Pavelski and Christian Ehrhoff would give the Sharks a 2-0 advantage.  The Oilers would get one back later in the frame as Sam Gagner scored on the power play assisted by Robert Nilsson and Dustin Penner.   The Sharks maintained their defensive tenacity, however, and the Oilers were not able to beat Nabokov for the tying score.  For the game, Edmonton enjoyed a narrow 26-22 shots on goal advantage.

After the game, Nabokov suggested that the team was more concerned with the quality of their play than with points and trophies:

"We do care about the points, but we care more about the way we play. With a lot of guys out of the lineup we have to tidy it up a little bit. We have to be disciplined and that's what we are right now. "

Sharks’ coach Todd McLellan, while happy with the victory, tried to minimize its significance in the ‘big picture’:

"It was a simple road win. I don't know that we were at our best. I thought Edmonton threw everything they had us. They came very hard. We had to be very prepared."

San Jose will play a pair of games against the Anaheim Ducks this weekend.  The teams will battle Saturday at the HP Pavilion before heading south to play at the Honda Center on Sunday.  The Sharks will then host the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.  Edmonton will play their next three at home, hosting Vancouver on Saturday, Los Angeles on Tuesday and Calgary on Friday.