SAN JOSE – A game between two of the most electrifying players in the NHL in Macklin Celebrini and Connor McDavid on Saturday instead became a defensive showdown, at least for the first two periods.

But while McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers capitalized on their select opportunities, Celebrini and the Sharks didn’t find any offense until it was too late.

The Sharks allowed a first-period goal to Mattias Ekholm and third-period goals to Vasily Podkolzin and Alex Formenton in a 2:27 span, falling 3-1 to the Oilers before an announced sellout crowd of 17,435 at SAP Center.

Celebrini, in his return after missing the previous two games with a lower body injury, scored his first goal of the season at the 11:19 mark of the third period, as he helped create a turnover in the Oilers’ end, took a pass from Michael Misa, and fired a shot past Oilers goalie Tristan Jarry to cut Edmonton’s lead to 3-1.

But the Sharks (3-2-0) couldn’t get any closer, losing for the second time in three games while managing just three regulation-time goals in that span. The Sharks went 0-for-2 on the power play against the Oilers and couldn’t connect on a 6-on-4 advantage late in the third period.

Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov finished with 17 saves, and Jarry had 19 saves.

The Sharks wanted to use Saturday’s game as a measuring stick against a team expected to compete for the Pacific Division title and perhaps make its third trip to the Cup Final in four years. The Sharks showed they can keep pace with the Oilers, but that they still have issues to address.

“We really just make three tough, tough mistakes, and those end up in the back of our net,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Other than that, we did some good things, some stuff we can build off of.”

Quick takeaways from Saturday’s game

DEFENSE ON DISPLAY

Through two periods, the Sharks allowed only eight shots on goal, all at even strength, while keeping McDavid and the Oilers mostly at bay.

That’s the fewest shots the Oilers have generated in the first two periods of a game in the McDavid era, which began in 2015-2016 season.

The challenge for the Sharks is to keep defending like that while also generating scoring chances. Before slightly tweaking the forward lines for the final 20 minutes, the Sharks, per Natural Stat Trick, generated only two high-danger chances over the first two periods.

One came late in the second period when Celebrini took a pass in the slot, beat Jarry, and rang off the post.

“It’s a tough group to contain with the players that they have,” Celebrini said of the Oilers. “But that shouldn’t take away from our mentality to get on them and create more offense.”

Each team had five shots in the first period, but a breakdown by San Jose led to Edmonton’s first goal.

Oilers forwards Josh Samanski and Ike Howard won a battle along the boards before Howard sent a pass to an open Ekholm, who had time to unleash a bomb from well inside the blue line that got past a screened Askarov for a 1-0 Oilers lead.

“We have three forwards on one side. Not what we want,” Warsofsky said. “But it starts with a puck battle down low. We lose the puck. They get the puck, and we defended them.”

SCORING BALANCE DIFFERENCE

The Sharks have their deepest forward group in years, but it didn’t come through on Saturday.

While the Oilers got even-strength goals with three different lines on the ice, the Sharks’ most dangerous line through two periods might have been their third line, Misa, Collin Graf and Tyler Toffoli.

Celebrini’s line with Will Smith and Mason Marchment had no shots on net in the first period and three in an improved second period, as the Oilers largely disrupted the Sharks’ offense. Darnell Nurse, who was playing his first game against his former team, had two shots in the first period and finished with five.

Is it time for the Sharks to change the top line and replace Marchment with another winger? Marchment scored in the first period of San Jose’s season-opening game, but hasn’t registered a point since, and has managed just nine shots on goal in the first four games.

Celebrini was assessed a tripping penalty midway through the third period, but still played 8:20 of the remaining 18:00. Late in regulation time, he played one shift with Smith and Igor Chernyshov, and one with Ivar Stenberg and Graf.

Warsofsky didn’t mind how Marchment played, but the beauty of the Sharks’ forward lines is that players can move up and down the lineup. Warsofsky wanted to give his lines time to jell, but he also has options.

“I thought (Chernyshov) had a pretty good game,” Warsofsky said. “We moved him around at times, too. That’s what we’ll kind of do with him in that spot going forward when guys are healthy, is maybe someone that moves around a little bit that can play up and down the lineup.

“It’s up to me and the coaches to figure that out.”