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Oilers earn much-needed win over Sharks

Taylor Hall scored the shootout winner as the Edmonton Oilers snapped a three-game losing skid with a 2-1 victory over the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks on Monday.
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Edmonton Oilers' goaltender Devan Dubnyk celebrates the Oilers' victory over the San Jose Sharks in Edmonton on Monday. Dubnyk stopped 44 of 45 shots in the game and three more in the shootout.

Oilers 2 Sharks 1

EDMONTON — Taylor Hall scored the shootout winner as the Edmonton Oilers snapped a three-game losing skid with a 2-1 victory over the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks on Monday.

Edmonton goaltender Devan Dubnyk was the first star of the game, stopping 44 of 45 shots in the game and three more in the shootout.

Jordan Eberle scored in regulation for the Oilers (18-26-4) who won for just the second time in 10 games and sixth in their last 26 outings.

Logan Couture responded for the Sharks (26-14-6) who have tailed off of late with losses in three straight games and four of their last five.

Both teams started their backup goalies as Edmonton went with Dubnyk and the Sharks countered with Thomas Greiss.

Dubnyk saw the bulk of the early action, and had some luck on his side in the first period. Captain Shawn Horcoff coughed up the puck behind the Edmonton net and Jamie McGinn got a slap shot away from the slot, but the puck rattled hard off the post.

The Sharks outshot Edmonton 13-5 in the scoreless first.

The Oilers finally opened the scoring seven minutes into the second period as a Jeff Petry shot deflected off of a Shark defender right to the stick of Eberle, who sent his 18th of the season into a wide-open net with Greiss going the other way.

Oiler Andy Sutton got the crowd revved up with about six minutes left in the second period as he levelled McGinn with a clean body check at the blue-line.

The shots continued to heavily favour the Sharks, 26-12 through 40 minutes.

San Jose came close to getting the tying goal three minutes into the third period as John McCarthy almost caught Dubnyk napping with a quick wrap-around attempt, but the Edmonton goalie kept the puck out.

The Sharks looked to have suffered a severe injury five minutes into the third as Oilers forward Ales Hemsky got into a knee-on-knee collision with Brent Burns, and the veteran defenceman needed to be helped off of the ice.

Hemsky was given a kneeing major on the play.

It took just 45 seconds for the penalty to pay off as Couture notched his 100th career NHL point with a tip of a Dan Boyle shot Dubnyk had no chance on to tie the game 1-1.