EDMONTON, Alberta -- The battle for first place in the Pacific Division didn't last very long Tuesday in Edmonton.

Aside from a few tense minutes early in the third period, it was all San Jose Sharks in a 5-3 victory over the Oilers at Rogers Arena.

Winger Mikkel Boedker, who had three goals all season, scored three in the first two periods to give the Sharks a lead they would never relinquish.

"A game like that, when you score on your first shift, you're going to feel good the whole game," said Boedker, who had been struggling for offense all season. "They came my way today."

The Sharks needed all of them, too, because the Oilers, trailing 4-1 after two periods, got off the canvas in the third and made a fight of it.

However briefly.

Defenseman Matt Benning put a wrist shot past Sharks goalie Martin Jones at 22 seconds and defenseman Oscar Klefbom cut the deficit to 4-3 on a point shot at 3:45.

Suddenly the Sharks were on their heels.

Coach Pete DeBoer decided to settle things down with a time out and the result spoke for itself. Less than two minutes later, San Jose's Logan Couture stopped the bleeding with a breakaway goal.

"The response was great," Sharks center Joe Pavelski said. "Everyone kind of calmed down and realized we were in a good spot and we had to get back to playing our game."

DeBoer admitted he had to think twice about burning his time out with 16 minutes to play in a one-goal game.

"It's a tough call because they're so valuable," DeBoer said. "On the Couture goal, we might have wanted to challenge that if they'd have waved it off for goaltender interference or something. We could have needed it potentially.

"It wasn't the difference in the game but we regrouped and settled in and the next goal was obviously a big one."

Boedker had three goals on his first three shots, scoring at 1:39 of the first period and 2:24 and 8:55 of the second. It was his fourth career hat trick and second against the Oilers. It also comes two games after he was made a healthy scratch.

"This is what we know he can do," Pavelski said. "His first goal really got us going.

"He's such a good teammate and a good person. You know that somebody with that kind of character is going to break out. It was good to see the puck go in for him."

Brent Burns also scored in the first period for the Sharks, who led 2-1 after one period and 4-1 after two.

"We were too slow out of the gate, too slow for 25 minutes of the game, we were on our heels," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "To me, it was very reminiscent of the game in Ottawa. Not really ready to go, too slow, turnovers, no execution early in the game and then put your foot on the gas and go after a team. We're not going to win like that."

Drake Caggiula scored Edmonton's goal in the first period.

Edmonton pressed hard in the second period and outshot San Jose 16-8, but couldn't anything by Jones, who was named to the Pacific Division All-Star team.

At the other end of the ice, Oilers goalie Cam Talbot (five goals on 28 shots), didn't think he was good enough.

"Other than my own play we played a pretty good hockey game," Talbot said. "Jones made some good saves, but it's my job to give us a chance to win, and I didn't do my job today."

The first-place Sharks (25-14-2) seem to have righted their ship, winning two straight after dropping three in a row to open a three-point lead on Edmonton.

The Oilers, who have one of the best road records in the NHL (12-7-5), can't seem to get any momentum going in their new arena. They fell to 9-8-2 at Rogers.

NOTES: The Oilers placed G Jonas Gustavsson on waivers for the purpose of reassignment after he gave up four goals on 17 shots Sunday in Ottawa. The Oilers outshot the Senators 38-18 and lost 5-3 with an empty-netter. ... Edmonton also assigned rookie Jesse Puljujarvi, the fourth pick overall last summer, to their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield. He'd been a healthy scratch 14 times in the first 41 games. ... Oilers LW Pat Maroon already has a career high 16 goals on the season. His previous best was 11. ... The Oilers recalled RW Anton Slepyshev from Bakersfield. ... Sharks C Tomas Hertl, whose been out two months with a knee injury, is skating again and could be ready to return by the first week of February. ... D Marc-Edouard Vlasic returned to the San Jose lineup after missing four games while recovering from a puck in the face. He had two assists and blocked seven shots. .... San Jose C Joe Thornton has 42 shots in 41 games, a big reason why he only has two goals. ... San Jose is eight points ahead of where it was at the halfway mark last season, when it advanced to the Stanley Cup final.