San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (31) is scored on by the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton, on Wednesday, January 29, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
January 29, 2014 - 9:20 PM
EDMONTON - Ben Scrivens kicked out 59 shots in a spectacular performance that backstopped the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-0 victory Wednesday over the San Jose Sharks.
It equalled the most shots ever given up by the Oilers. They surrendered 59 to the New York Rangers in 1993, a game the Oilers won 4-3. They won their third straight game Wednesday totally because of the work of the recently-obtained Scrivens.
Justin Schultz, Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall scored for Edmonton.
The Oilers got off to another of their usual slow starts but escaped the first period with a 1-0 lead thanks to the outstanding work of Scrivens who stopped all 20 shots fired his way.
Obtained from Los Angeles in a trade on Jan. 15, Scrivens had to be extremely sharp to keep the Oilers in the game, getting in front of point-blank shots, close-in deflections, goalmouth scrambles and rebounds his defencemen failed to cover.
Three of his best stops in the first period came on a San Jose power play when he got a pad on Dan Boyle's slapshot from the hash marks, Jason Demers' backhand on a rebound and Patrick Marleau's deflection from about five feet in front.
"He made some big saves," defenceman Nick Schultz said after the period. "We definitely have to clean things up in our own end."
His defensive partner, Justin Schultz put the Oilers in front with a long shot at 10:51. His harmless looking wrist shot hit a player in front and eluded the grasp of San Jose goaltender Antti Niemi. At that point Edmonton was outshot 14-4 and their only other good scoring chance came on a Ryan Jones shorthanded breakaway.
It was a similar story in the second period only without any scoring. The Sharks outshot the Oilers 22-9, rang two shots off the goalpost and forced Scrivens to be even better than he was in the first period.
He flashed his glove to make two sparkling stops off Bracken Kearns and Demers seconds apart early in the period. He got a well-deserved standing ovation late in the period after stopping Marleau twice - once on a quick breakaway - and then making his 41st and 42nd saves on a goalmouth scramble. He got several standing ovations in the third.
"That's probably the best performance I've seen so far," defenceman Philip Larsen said of Scrivens' play.
The Sharks, whose previous highest shots on goal was 57 continued their domination in the third period when they outshot Edmonton … but couldn't find a way to put the puck in the net.
Hall scored six minutes into the period to finish off a two-on-one break with Eberle and then fed Eberle for the third goal with just over a minute remaining. Hall finished with three points.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014