Draisaitl scores twice, Oilers roll to win over Sharks

EDMONTON — Thursday provided a solid first look at how the Edmonton Oilers hope to fare down the stretch with a — finally — healthy lineup and a couple of trade deadline day tweaks.

Leon Draisaitl scored a pair of goals as the Oilers snapped a two-game losing skid with a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks.

Kailer Yamamoto, newcomer Derick Brassard and Evander Kane also scored for the Oilers (36-24-5), who improved to 6-1-1 in their last eight outings.

“Every point matters at this time of the year,” said Oilers forward Zach Hyman. “I thought the two guys we brought on (deadline day additions Derick Brassard and Brett Kulak) were great and with (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) coming back from injury, we can start to see our team fully healthy with all of the guys. I thought it was awesome to get the win and to keep building confidence moving forward.”

Mike Smith stopped 28-of-30 shots for Edmonton to earn the victory.

“We’ve done a lot of things here in the last few weeks that have given this team a lot of confidence. We feel like we can play with anybody in this league,” he said. “I feel like the last two or three weeks we’ve really got some traction here. We’ve played some good hockey against some good hockey teams. I feel confident that things are trending in the right direction at the right time of year.”

Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks (28-28-8), who saw a two-game winning streak halted.

San Jose's Kaapo Kahkonen made 36 saves in his Sharks debut.

“Not the result we wanted, obviously,” Kahkonen said. “Good is not good enough in this league. I wish I could have made one or two more saves here, keep it a little closer. But overall I felt fine. The guys have been great.”

After a scoreless first, the Sharks