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Sharks power play gives up two short-handed goals against Oilers in Game 2 loss

Sharks struggling with power play vs. Oilers

EDMONTON — The power play was more of a disadvantage for the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.

The Sharks went 0 for 6 on the power play while allowing two short-handed goals against in a 2-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, evening their first-round series 1-1.

"Scoring on our power play would have been nice," said Sharks defenceman Brent Burns. "We just need to work through it. It is frustrating, obviously.

"We need to get better there. That was the difference in the game, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out."

Edmonton's short-handed goals came from Connor McDavid and Zack Kassian.

"Special teams is obviously where they won tonight, and I think it's a different game if you score on one of those," said San Jose defenceman Brenden Dillon.

Sharks captain Joe Pavelski agreed the power-play struggles were definitely the main factor in the loss.

"There were parts of the game that were alright. But we got on the power play and it kind of zapped us a little bit," he said. "We'll learn from it, forget it and move on. We have another game in a couple of days and we need to be better."

Another factor in the loss was the shot totals. After outshooting Edmonton 44-19 in their 3-2 overtime win in Game 1 on Wednesday, the Sharks were outshot 36-16 in the second encounter.

Edmonton also out-hit San Jose 41-21 on the night.

"I think they were the better team tonight and we were the better team the other night," said Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer. " This isn't going to be a short series."

The Sharks continued play without veteran forward Joe Thornton, who missed the final three games of the regular season and the opening pair of games in the playoffs with a knee injury and is still day-to-day.

San Jose went to the Stanley Cup Final last season, losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.

Game 3 of the series takes place on Sunday in San Jose.

"A split is what you want," Burns said of heading home with the series knotted "We know we have better games in us than we showed tonight."

Shane Jones, The Canadian Press