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the prospect

The Edmonton Oilers celebrate a win over the Dallas Stars during overtime NHL action in Edmonton, Alta., on Friday, Dec. 4, 2015. The Oilers have won four consecutive games and five in a row at home.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press

Something strange is happening in Edmonton. The Oilers are winning hockey games.

That they are doing it without their top player, the injured rookie sensation Connor McDavid, makes it all the more noteworthy.

On Wednesday night, they dispatched with the San Jose Sharks, 4-3, in overtime, in Todd McLellan's first game coaching against his former team.

It was the Oilers' fourth consecutive victory and fifth in a row at home. The last time they won five in a row at Rexall Place was 2008. They have had seven coaches since then.

Taylor Hall fetched the puck from his winning goal and pressed it into McLellan's palm after the game. It has been nine years since an Edmonton team reached the postseason but now, suddenly and quite unexpectedly, it appears within reach.

Perhaps it is a tease, but for Edmonton's long-suffering fans, even a doubtful dalliance is welcome.

On Thursday, the Oilers found themselves only three points removed from the playoffs, and only four behind the division-leading Los Angeles Kings. The division isn't very strong, which is helping to sustain hope.

"If you look at the standings, we are in it right now," Jordan Eberle said after scoring a key goal Wednesday for a third straight game. "We have to keep finding ways to win. We want to keep playing meaningful hockey."

A year ago at this time, the Oilers were far behind and fading fast. They had lost 15 of 16 games when Dallas Eakins was dismissed as head coach on Dec. 15, and the losing didn't stop then. From Nov. 11 to Dec. 30, a stretch of 49 days, they managed to win only twice.

There is a rebirth occurring in Edmonton now, an arena under construction downtown as part of a $6-billion revitalization plan, and along with it, a promising team. The Oilers enter Friday with a 12-15-2 record; last season it was Jan. 20 before they won their 12th game.

The victory over San Jose was the Oilers' fourth against a Pacific Division rival in eight games. Last season, they went 4-21-4 within the division. While it is true that any NHL team can beat any other on a given night, in recent years the Oilers have rarely done that. But they are knocking off notable teams with regularity thus far, with Detroit, Montreal, Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Boston, Dallas and now the Sharks among their victims.

They battled back from a 3-2 disadvantage to beat San Jose in a feisty, if imperfect, performance. They hammered the Sharks relentlessly, outhitting them from start to finish, and when gloves were dropped they were unbowed.

Jujhar Khaira, a 6-foot-4 winger called up recently from AHL Bakersfield, knocked Brenden Dillon's helmet off with an uppercut during a row near the end of the first period. Luke Gazdic, a 6-foot-4 tough guy with one goal and four fights in 17 games, dropped the pugilistic Mike Brown during a scuffle in the second. A linesman had to pin Matt Hendricks to the ice at one point to keep him from scrapping with the Sharks' bearded wild man Brent Burns.

"When I came in here with San Jose in the past, our mentality was that we could wear the Oilers down," McLellan said. "Our players with size used it tonight. I am happy. We were more physical."

McLellan, whose teams reached the postseason in six of the seven years he was in San Jose, has the Oilers playing their best in a long time, even while missing McDavid and his ailing first-line teammates, Benoît Pouliot and Nail Yakupov. McDavid, 18, is not expected back until next month after suffering a broken collarbone on Nov. 3.

"I am happy for our guys," McLellan said. "They are starting to string some games together. And in the next segment from here to Christmas, I expect us to get better."

The Oilers have been carried by Anders Nilsson, a 6-foot-5 goalie who sharpened his skills last season with Kazan of the KHL.

Faced with being sent back to the minors after playing for parts of two seasons with the Islanders, the 25-year-old opted instead to go to Russia.

"I thought I wouldn't be developing my game in the AHL, so I looked for the next highest league possible," Nilsson said. "It was a gamble, but I got lucky. My goal was to get back to the NHL, and that kept me motivated."

Nilsson was invited to camp by the Oilers and has since taken the starting job away from Cam Talbot. The Swede is 9-7-1, with five wins in his past six games and a .944 save percentage over that stretch.

"I learned what I needed to do while I was in Russia and I grew a lot as a goalie and a person," Nilsson said. "It was hard moving away from home to a different country and it was a big adjustment, but I feel pretty good at this point.

"I'm trying not to look back or too far ahead. You can't have too many ups and downs."

The winning streak has enlivened the Oilers' fans, who are loyal if a bit weary of finishing at or near the bottom of the league every year. When they won the right to pick first in the NHL draft, it was the fourth time in six years. That is a booby prize, not a badge to be worn too proudly.

Following games this week, fans have been chatting it up on radio talk shows, with one caller fretting that McDavid may upset the team's new-found "chemistry" when he gets back, and another poised to buy Stanley Cup tickets.

"This team looks unbeatable now," Trevor, a caller to Reid Wilkins's postgame talk show on CHED, said after a 4-2 victory over the Sabres on Sunday night.

On Friday night, the Oilers are honouring Glen Sather, the coach and architect of their greatest teams, by raising a banner at Rexall Place. Then they will try to keep their winning streak alive against Sather's Rangers, who reached the Eastern Conference final last year. A trip to Boston, New York, Chicago and Colorado will follow.

That is usually a death march for a team from Edmonton, but maybe not this time.

"We are getting closer and closer to where we want to be," said Hall, who has 30 points in 29 games. "It is important for us to stay in the race. You never know what can happen if you can stay within four or five points at the end of the year."

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