EDMONTON, 14 May 2006 — The Edmonton Oilers leveled their best-of-seven playoff semifinal series at 2-2 against the San Jose Sharks on Friday, surprising the usually stingy goaltender Vesa Toskala with a come-from-behind 6-3 win.

Oilers captain Jason Smith gobbled up a pass from Sergei Samsanov and scored the Oilers’ go-ahead goal and said his side must continue with their attacking approach.

“We’ve just got to continue driving to the net when we go back to San Jose,” said Smith, who continued to dish out the physical punishment to Sharks’ offensive threat Joe Thornton.

San Jose opened the scoring at 3:47 of the first period, when Jonathon Cheechoo fed Joe Thornton, who fired the puck past Edmonton netminder Dwayne Roloson.

Nils Ekman made it 2-0 at the 6:40 mark, after Sharks’ captain Patrick Marleau won a key face-off in the Oilers’ zone and slid the puck to Ekman through an Edmonton defender’s skates.

Shawn Horcoff, who scored the dramatic game winner for Edmonton in triple overtime Wednesday night, replied for the Oilers at 12:55 of the first period, deflecting a Smith shot from the right point.

Thornton and Cheechoo hooked up once again on San Jose’s third goal at 9:02 of the second period, the result of a turnover by Oilers’ D-man Chris Pronger.

Michael Peca closed the gap for the Oilers, setting the stage for a momentum-shifting goal by Samsanov.

Having just finished serving a penalty for hooking, the speedy Russian winger jumped onto the ice and beat Toskala in a race for a loose puck, depositing it into an empty net to even the score at 3-3 heading into the third period.

Smith put the Oilers ahead for the first time and then Ales Hemsky made it 5-3 after a fine pass from Ryan Smyth.

San Jose coach Ron Wilson replaced the struggling Toskala with Evgeni Nabokov, who fared little better, as Jarrett Stoll rounded out the scoring for Edmonton, converting on the game’s only five-on-three man advantage.

“It’s definitely going to help our confidence,” said Edmonton head coach Craig MacTavish, whose team had only scored a total of five goals over the first three games of the series.

“We’ve got an opportunity now, and really it’s about taking advantage of that opportunity to put a stranglehold on the series.” The series now shifts back to San Jose for Game Five tonight.