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Oilers start Dubnyk vs. Sharks
By
DEREK VAN DIEST, QMI Agency
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  The Oilers are hoping to end their losing ways Thursday night in San Jose. (REUTERS/Chad Ziemendorf) |
SAN JOSE — Devan Dubnyk will get the start Thursday night as the Edmonton Oilers look to extend the San Jose Sharks' misery, while at the same time alleviate a little of their own.
The Sharks head into the game at the HP Pavilion on a five-game losing skid. The Oilers, meanwhile, go in having lost nine of their last 10 games.
However, they did put up a good fight in a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, out-shooting their opponents 41-20 in the contest.
“We have to certainly bring that effort and we’ll let the results take care of themselves,” said Oilers head coach Tom Renney. “If we play the way we did in Dallas with that type of passion and attention to detail, we give ourselves a pretty good chance.”
This will be Dubnyk’s 12th start of the season. His last resulted in a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders a week ago.
He heads into the contest with a 3-3-5 record with a 2.78 goals against average and a .918 save percentage.
“This will be an opportunity for him to go and I don’t want to wait too long in between starts for him,” said Renney. “If I take a look at the rest of the season, I certainly want him to play enough so that we can make sure that he’s had that type of season that he can look back on, grow and learn from.”
The Oilers have lost the previous three games against the Sharks this season. But after getting blown out 6-1 at home in their first encounter, they’ve played the Sharks tight, losing a pair of one-goal games.
“We have to continue to identify our game and how we have to play,” Renney said. “In Dallas we were close again and if you come back to the games that we played a few weeks ago, similarly, we showed our guys some clips of our effort last time in San Jose. If we do that again, we have an excellent chance.”
derek.vandiest@sunmedia.ca
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