San Jose Sharks center William Eklund (center) scores the winning goal in overtime against the New York Islanders goalie IIya Soronkin at the UBS Arena in Elmont NY on Tue Dec 5, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Jessica Kwong

ELMONT, N.Y. — The San Jose Sharks got their biggest victory of the season with a 5-4 win in overtime against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Tuesday night.

San Jose trailed 4-1 at 8:27 in the final period, but rallied and overcame a three-goal deficit for the third time in franchise history.

William Eklund, who won it for the Sharks in overtime, said it was probably the most fun win he’s had in his NHL career.

“So fun, so fun,” said Eklund. “Just winning this way is really fun.”

In the first period, Julien Gauthier made a wrist shot at 9:28 to put the Islanders up 1-0. Tomas Hertl answered back with a wrist shot at 12:19 to tie the game at 1-1. In the second period, Brock Nelson scored a wrist shot at 5:27 to boost the Islanders up 2-1.

Mike Reilly in the third period made a slap shot at 5:17 to put the Islanders up 3-1. Then Ryan Pulock made a slap shot of his own at 8:27 to expand the Islanders’ lead to 4-1.

But the Sharks refused to give up, and Kevin Labanc made an unassisted tip-in at 11:55 to cut the Islanders’ lead to 4-2. Then Hertl made an unassisted wrist shot at 16:49 and the Sharks trailed by only one. That was not all Hertl had up his sleeve – Hertl got a hat trick with a wrist shot at 18:30 and tied the game at 4-4.

“For sure, I feel like I would lie if I don’t like to score a hat trick, you know, everybody loves to score especially when you can help the team and I’m really happy I could finish it,” said Hertl. “Two big points for us and I think we worked really hard this whole trip and a big win for us but we still have two more games but it feels right now great in our group.”

In overtime, Mikael Granlund passed the puck to Eklund who made a wrist shot at 4:55 to win it for the Sharks 5-4.

Eklund said he was “trying to get some speed there and Granlud made an unbelievable play to me to rip it into the net and it went in.”

San Jose scored 16 goals in the last three road games, which included a 6-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Friday and a 6-5 loss to the New York Rangers on Sunday.

Sharks head coach David Quinn said the recent winning “certainly brings us to another level” after a tough first 11 games in the season.

“Fun? I don’t know if I’d call that fun,” Quinn said of the game against the Islanders. “But for the last three-and- a-half minutes, certainly, make you feel really good. You know that second goal really gave us a ray of hope, really good job by the Sturm-Labanc-Bailey line… It was a hell of a play on that fourth goal to tie it.”

The Sharks (7-17-2) continue their road trip on Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings (13-7-3) at Little Caesars Arena. The puck drops at 4pm PST.