San Jose Sharks winger William Eklund heating up with Edmonton Oilers next

SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks winger William Eklund has scored a handful of highlight-reel goals this season, including one in Boston last month that seemed to get more remarkable each time it was replayed.

Eklund just needed to find the back of the net a little more often, if for no other reason than to take some of the scoring burden off of Macklin Celebrini and the Sharks’ top line.

Fortunately for the Sharks, that’s what’s been happening lately, as Eklund is playing some of his best hockey of the season at its most critical juncture.

“He’s a man on a mission, in a sense,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Eklund, who had a goal and an assist in the second period of the Sharks’ 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday.

“He’s playing on the inside. He’s (playing) direct, and he wants the puck on his stick. He’s feeling it right now.”

Eklund will carry a three-game point streak into Wednesday when the Sharks (37-32-7) face the Edmonton Oilers in another crucial game. San Jose, with 81 points, is two points back of the Los Angeles Kings for the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference with a game in hand.

Eklund was the Sharks’ second-leading scorer last season with 58 points in 77 games. It didn’t look like he was going to better that total this season, especially after he had just two goals and 15 assists in 32 games from the start of January until the end of March.

Eklund scored a goal for the ages against the Bruins on March 12, contorting his body as he leaped in the air – Bobby Orr-like — in front of the Boston net before he slapped the puck past goalie Jeremy Swayman in what became a 4-2 Sharks win.

The effort helped snap Eklund’s 19-game goal drought, but, unfortunately for him and the Sharks, he went another 10 games before scoring again.

Now on a line with Alex Wennberg and Kiefer Sherwood, Eklund has five points in the Sharks’ last three games, his second-most productive stretch of the season after he had four goals and five assists in a five-game streak in late October.

Warsofsky said before Monday’s game that he thought Eklund had “a great moment of growth” after the first period of Saturday’s game against the Nashville Predators. That growth continued against the Blackhawks.

“He’s skating, his legs look good,” Warsofsky said. “I think he’s a guy who just really, really wants it. He wants to be a difference maker, and I think he’s really grabbing on to this type of hockey, which is really important.”

Eklund, in the second period on Monday, scored his 14th goal of the season on a dogged individual effort and assisted on Sherwood’s 22nd goal to give San Jose a 2-1 lead with 5:05 left before the intermission.

With his team trailing by a goal, Eklund was checking Wyatt Kaiser inside the Sharks’ blue line before he intercepted a pass intended for Connor Bedard. Eklund then took control of the puck, raced in on a breakaway, and beat Blackhawks goalie Spencer Knight to tie the game 1-1.

“Obviously, it was a great individual effort,” Sherwood said of Eklund’s play. “But it all starts from coming back in the (defensive) zone, being responsible, protecting the middle. He made a great poke and just hopped around and used his speed and a great finish.”

“Tried to stay on the puck on the defensive side there,” Eklund said. “They made a play on the blue line, and I was just trying to go, and it went in.”

On Sherwood’s goal, Wennberg won a draw in the Blackhawks zone to Sherwood, who sent the puck around the boards and behind the net to Eklund. Sherwood found some open ice on the edge of the circle near the slot, and one-timed a pass from Eklund past Knight.

Sherwood’s addition to that line seems to have created some extra space for Wennberg and Eklund to operate.

“I think, for a while, I’ve been doing the right things,” Eklund said. “I think our line has been playing really good hockey. It’s nice to get rewarded.”

Eklund now has 48 points in 72 games. It’s not all about scoring for him, of course, as he became the No. 7 overall pick in 2021 partly because of his compete level and heady, two-way play.

But the Sharks have been in desperate need of other offensive contributors for most of the season and are going to have a hard time making the playoffs for the first time in seven years if they’re just a one-line team.

Celebrini has now scored or assisted on 45.7% of the Sharks’ goals this season, a number that’s actually gone down over the last three games, although San Jose’s record when Celebrini doesn’t score is still an ugly 2-15-3.

That said, the Sharks have things to clean up in time for Wednesday’s game.

The Oilers have the NHL’s top power play, and the Sharks’ penalty kill is now just 3-for-8 over the last three games. Puck management also remains a major issue, as a Dmitry Orlov giveaway late in the third period would have resulted in the tying goal had it not been for a key stop from goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who made 27 saves against the Blackhawks.

Still, the Sharks can’t complain too much about what’s so far been a 4-1-0 homestand. Starting Wednesday, San Jose has six games over the next 11 days. Eklund needs to keep it up.

“It’s a lot of games coming right now, and every game matters the most,” Eklund said. “I think we have a young core here trying to learn how to win these games. Today, everything wasn’t perfect, but we won a game, and that’s what we’ve got to do.”