Sharks Fall 4-2 to Avalanche; SJ loses six of last nine games

San Jose Sharks center Logan Couture, left and Colorado Avalanche left wing Andre Burakovsky (right) scramble for the puck at the Ball Center in Denver on Thu Mar 31, 2022 (AP News photo )

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 4-2 to the Colorado Avalanche Thursday, the second loss in as many nights for the Sharks. Alex Newhook Darren Helm, Mikko Rantanen and Andre Burakovsky scored for the Avalanche. Pavel Francouz made 25 saves for the win. Timo Meier and Brent Burns scored for San Jose and Kaapo Kahkonen made 42 saves in the loss.

This was Kaapo Kahkonen’s second start as a Shark. After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said, of Kahkonen: “I thought he was excellent, I thought that, you know, a couple of those goals he had no help on. I thought he made some big saves for us at the right time. I thought he played extremely well.” Of the team’s performance, he said: “I thought that we played hard for being in a back-to-back situation. I thought there’s a lot of good things to our game.”

Alex Newhook gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 1:54 of the second period. Kurtis MacDermid sent the puck to the slot for Newhook, who spun and shot it past three skaters in front of the goaltender. Assists went to MacDermid and Erik Johnson.

Timo Meier tied it up at 12:09. Tomas Hertl fought his way into the zone and to the net before being pushed down in the slot. The puck still got to Meier to the side of the net so he could score his 31^st of the season. Assists went to Hertl and Alexander Barabanov.

Darren Helm made it 2-1 for the Avalanche at 2:05 of the third period. Helm was going to the net when he caught the pass from Valeri Nichushkin. He skated across in front of the goaltender before taking a shot that went off of the post and in.

Brent Burns tied it at 6:29 when Tomas Hertl got the puck to him off of a face-off. Burns carried it to the middle of the ice and took a quick wrist shot.

Mikko Rantanen restored Colorado’s lead with a power play goal at 12:17. Nazem Kadri set him up with a nice cross-ice pass down low for Rantanen’s 34^th of the season. Assists went to Kadri and Cale Makar.

Andre Burakovsky scored the insurance goal at 15:16, collecting a rebound in close and lifting it into the net. Assists went to Erik Johnson and Nazem Kadri.

The Avalanche outshot the Sharks 46-27. The Sharks power play had three shots in three opportunities and their penalty kill allowed nine shots I three penalty kills, including one five-on-three.

The Sharks next play on Saturday back in San Jose against the Dallas Stars at 7:30 PM PT.

Sharks Fall 4-3 to Avalanche, Kane scores 500th Point

The San Jose get swept in the two game set with the Colorado Avalanche losing on Thursday 3-0 and on Sat May 1, 2021, 4-3 in Denver (@Avalanche photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost their final road game of the season to the Colorado Avalanche by a score of 4-3. Nathan MacKinnon, Andre Burakovsky, Patrik Nemeth and Mikko Rantanen scored for Colorado. Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves for the win. Alexander Brabanov, Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl scored for San Jose. Josef Korenar made 39 saves in the loss. Evander Kane scored his 500th NHL point in the third period with an assist on Logan Couture’s short-handed goal.

Josef Korenar made 39 saves on 43 shots Saturday. After the game, Sharks captain Logan Couture talked about the goaltender:

“I thought he kept us in the game. He was probably our best player for the majority of the night. I thought it could have been a lot more than the four that they got. So, he battled for us. We made it a game at the end there but wish we’d helped him out a little bit more throughout the game.”

The first period ended scoreless, with Colorado leading in shots 15-10. There was just one penalty, taken by the Sharks. The Avalanche power play got one shot on goal.

The Sharks scored the first goal of the game, on a power play at 4:25 of the second period. It was their first power play goal in 28 power plays. Barabanov caught a rebound out in the face-off circle and shot it by Dubnyk on the blocker side. Assists went to Tomas Hertl and Erik Karlsson.

Nathan MacKinnon tied the game at 13:08 of the second. The teams were playing four-on-four with Brent Burns and Dan Renouf in the box for penalties taken less than 20 seconds apart. Conor Timmins made a pass across the ice to MacKinnon who was closing fast on the net without anyone in his way. Assists went to Timmins and Mikko Rantanen.

Andre Burakovsky gave the Avalanche the leads at 16:06. Burakovsky caught the puck out of an offensive zone face-off, skated toward the slot and took the shot through some traffic to score. An assist went to JT Compher.

The Sharks killed one penalty in the second period, but were out-shot 12-4 in the period. The Colorado power play had four shots in the second. The Sharks power play had the one shot.

Patrik Nemeth made it 3-1 for Colorado at 9:05 of the third period. His slap shot from the blue line zipped through traffic and into the net. Assists went to Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon.

Logan Couture cut the lead by one with a short-handed goal at 9:55. Evander Kane snatched up a fumbled puck at the blue line and skated away from Makar to get a shot on goal. Logan Couture followed in a hurry and put the rebound away.

The Avalanche challenged the goal for goaltender interference. Kane did make contact with Dubnyk without actually entering the blue paint. The NHL did not consider it enough to call back the goal.

Colorado took back their two-goal lead with 4:26 left in the period. Mikko Rantanen’s shot from the blue line went through a lot of traffic and in. Assists went to Devon Toews and Conor Timmins.

With the Sharks net empty, Brent Burns took a quick shot from the blue line at 17:47. The puck went off of Tomas Hertl for his 16th of the season. Assists went to Burns and Barabanov.

The Sharks made a good final push at the end but it was not enough. The Sharks finally won the shot battle for the period, 11-8. The Sharks had one power play and a bit in the third, which added two shots to their tally. Colorado had just one shot on their power play before Couture scored and the unsuccessful challenge ended the power play. The Sharks won just 41% of the face-offs in the game.

The Sharks next play on Monday, in San Jose. They will face the Avalanche again at 7:30 PM PT.

Avalanche Shut Out Sharks 3-0

The San Jose Sharks Erik Karlsson (65) tries to control the puck as the Colorado Avalanche’s left wing Andre Burakovsky gives pursuit at SAP Center on Fri Apr 30, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 3-0 to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver Friday. Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen scored for Colorado, and Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves for the shut out win. Sharks goaltender Martin Jones made 33 saves in the loss.

The Sharks are clearly giving prospects a good look now and several played in Friday’s game. Left wing Ivan Chekhovich made his NHL debut with the Sharks Friday. He had one blocked shot in 10:55 of ice time. Center Alexander True made his third appearance of the season. He had one shot on goal and took one penalty in 13:01 of ice time.

After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said: “These young guys that are playing on the road in a tough building, against a good team, there was quite a few fans here tonight, so there was some atmosphere and it’s a good experience for them.”

Also getting a good look, the more experienced left wing Alexander Barabanov played his third in a row since joining the team at the trade deadline. He had a goal and two assists in his first two games. On a line with Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane Friday, he had one blocked shot, one hit and one penalty in 19:15 of ice time.

Boughner said, of Barabanov: “He slows the game down a bit, and his skill takes over. We’re asking a lot of him, playing on that top line against those players and he doesn’t look out of place defensively.”

The first goal came on a Colorado power play at 11:13 of the first period. Cale Makar took a shot down the slot and Gabriel Landeskog subtly tipped it into the net. Assists went to Makar and Mikko Rantanen.

Landeskog was in front of Jones for the next goal as well, on another power play at 13:13. This time Makar’s shot went past Landeskog and in. Assists went to Rantanen and Joonas Donskoi.

The Sharks had one power play in the first period, and got two shots on goal with the man advantage. Colorado had two power plays and got six shots with the extra man. Colorado outshot the Sharks 13-6 in the first.

The second period saw the Sharks kill off two penalties, one abbreviated by a Colorado penalty. Colorado’s power play got two shots in the period and the Sharks got none in their minute or so of power play time. The Avalanche out-shot the Sharks 12-8 in the period.

The Sharks put the puck in the net midway through the third period but Colorado challenged it as off side. Alexander Barabanov had knocked the puck out of the air above the blue line and after a review the goal was called back.

The third Colorado goal came at 18:21 of the third, when Mikko Rantanen scored into an empty net. Assists went to Landeskog and Carl Soderberg.

The Sharks power play took four shots in two tries in the third. The Avalanche still out shot the Sharks 11-7.

In keeping with attention to prospects, the Sharks’ AHL team was also playing Friday, in San Jose. Lengthy look-ins on that game were broadcast during intermissions of the Sharks game. The Barracuda won 6-4.

The Sharks next play on Saturday, again in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche at 5:00 PM PT.

Avalanche Bury Sharks in 7-3 Win

The Colorado Avalanche’s center Nathan MacKinnon (29) gets past the San Jose Sharks Mario Ferraro (38) to put the puck on net and Sharks goaltender Martin Jones (1) in the first period of Tue Jan 26, 2021 game at the Ball Center in Denver (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 7-3 to the high-powered Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday. The Avalanche goals were scored by Valeri Nichushkin, Brandon Saad (2), Joonas Donskoi, Mikko Rantanen, Devon Toews and Samuel Girard. Their goaltender, Philipp Grubauer, made 27 saves for the win. Sharks goals came from Noah Gregor, Ryan Donato and Logan Couture. Martin Jones made 14 saves on 19 shots before being replaced by Devan Dubnyk, who made 21 saves for San Jose.

Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner described the moment he thought the game really started to unravel for his team:

“The most disappointing thing for me was, you know, okay it’s three-one after the first period, we had a good eight, nine minutes and we’re still in the hockey game and then we start on the power play. We turn one over, they go down and get a breakaway. Our next unit comes on, turns one over, it’s in the back of our net, it’s four one. Obviously, that’s when the game opens up a bit and we paid the price for it. You can’t open up against these guys and you can’t mis-manage pucks and that’s exactly what we did.”

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson said:

“They played a good game today and we did not. I think we started okay but we still defended a lot, even though we got the first goal. I don’t think that was anything we really created. We got a good puck bounce. I think that once they started rolling, we became a little passive and we gave them a little too much room and, you know, we started doubting ourselves a bit. And that’s probably why the game ran away from us against a good team like this.”

The Sharks scored first, a double-tap from Ryan Donato at 10:39. He brought the puck up from the goal line and tried to shoot it through two defenders but it hit a couple of legs. He found it as it bounced and nudged it in for his third of the season. Assists went to Kevin Labanc and Logan Couture.

Colorado tied it up at 16:15. Valeri Nichushkin carried the puck down around behind the net and then sent it back to the blue line for a shot by Erik Johnson. Joonas Donskoi skated across in front of Martin Jones just as the shot came in and the puck hit him on the way in. Assists went to Johnson and Nichushkin.

The Avalanche took the lead less that a minute later. Cale Makar put the puck into traffic in front of Martin Jones and Brandon Saad knocked it in. Assists went to Makar and Andre Burakovsky.

Piling it on, Colorado scored a power play goal in the final minute of play. Nikolai Knyzhov was in the box for hooking against Tyson Jost. The Sharks penalty kill held off the Colorado power play for almost a minute before Mikko Rantanen scored with a hard shot from above the face-off circle. Assists went to Nathan MacKinnon and Makar.

At the end of the first, Colorado led in shots 16-9 and the Sharks had a slight lead in face-off wins of 52%.

The Avalanche kept rolling. The Sharks had an early power play in the second period, but half way through it, Valeri Nichushkin snatched the puck in the neutral zone and took it the other way for a short-handed goal.

Samuel Girard scored a few minutes later with a shot through what looked like all available skaters on the ice. Assists went to Tyson Jost and Kiefer Sherwood.

Devan Dubnyk came in to relieve Martin Jones in the Sharks net. After the game, Bob Boughner said: “I think both goalies were left out to dry multiple times tonight. It’s tough to make a goalie evaluation, I think that, you know, some of the plays that they made through the seam, and we actually made some saves on it, they scored on I think it was the second or third one. But you can’t allow seam plays.”

The Sharks’ third line showed some jump and scored one at 7:44. Some quick passes got the puck to the net just as Noah Gregor got there to tuck it in with a backhand. Assists went to Dylan Gambrell and Timo Meier.

Near the 13:00 mark, Devan Dubnyk got tangled up with J.T. Compher. He took some time to recover but did not leave the game.

The Avalanche resumed scoring at 13:30 when Devon Toews scored Colorado’s sixth of the night. Towes took a shot from the blue line that did not go in. Toews took another shot, this time into an empty net while Dubnyk was tangled up with another Colorado forward. Assists went to Gabriel Landeskog and Cale Makar.

Brandon Saad scored his second of the night at 15:01. Johnson, Kadri and Saad entered the zone and got around everyone but Vlasic and in a brief two-on-one, scored the team’s seventh.

The Sharks were outshot in the second 13-6.

Logan Couture got one back for San Jose at 12:43 of the third period. Kevin Labanc made a cross-ice pass to Donato as they entered the zone with Couture between them. Donato moved it back to the middle as they closed on the net and Couture tipped it in. Assists went to Donato and Labanc.

The only stat that favored the Sharks Tuesday was their face-off win percentage, finishing with 53%.

The Sharks next play on Thursday at 6:00 PM PT, against the Avalanche in Colorado again.

Sharks Hold On To Win 4-3 Over Avs

Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE — The San Jose took an early lead and then fended off the resurgent Colorado Avalanche for a 4-3 win at home Friday. Sharks goals came from Marcus Sorensen (2), Joe Pavelski and Timo Meier. Martin Jones made 22 saves for the win, while Semyon Varlamov made an impressive 36 saves for the losing team. The Avalanche got goals from Samuel Girard, Mikko Rantanen and Nikita Zadorov.

After the game, Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said:

We got a lot of pucks back and I think we were fairly hungry. We played a much harder game, much more complete game and, you know, we were rewarded for it. We got to play in the o-zone a little bit tonight.

The Sharks scored in the first five minutes of the first two periods. The first came from Marcus Sorensen, who received a well-timed pass from Brent Burns. Burns took a few seconds deciding where to send that pass as he held the puck along the boards. The opening was small, but Sorensen was there to shoot through traffic and into the net. Assists went to Burns and Joe Thornton.

The second came from Timo Meier at 2:35 of the second. Joe Pavelski got to the puck off a defensive zone faceoff and was just able to tip it over to Meier as Meier left the zone. Meier carried it through the neutral zone and then took a shot above the faceoff circle, using a Colorado defender as a screen. Pavelski got the assist.

The Avalanche got one back from the stick of Nikita Zadorov at 4:55 of the second. After winning control of the puck below the goal line, the Avalanche moved the puck back to the point and across, drawing defenders with it. Zadorov’s shot came from the blue line while Marc-Edouard Vlasic was trying to clear Matt Calvert out of Jones’s way. Jones didn’t see the shot coming until too late. Assists went to Gabriel Landeskog and Ian Cole.

With just 44 seconds left in the second, Sorensen scored his second of the game. The Avalanche were on their heels after a long, high-pressure shift from the Sharks’ top line of Couture, Pavelski and Meier. Not long after the line change, Kevin Labanc took a shot from almost at the blue line, but it hit a defender in front of Varlamov. Hertl was on hand to try again but his shot hit the post and the puck fell dead in the blue paint, behind the goaltender. Meier was right there for the third try and swept it over the line. Assists went to Hertl and Labanc.

The Sharks led on the shot clock in both the first (9-6) and second (18-7) periods. They also prevailed in the faceoff circle 55% of the time.

The Avalanche got a power play goal from Mikko Rantanen at 10:08 of the third. It was a strange goal that started with a shot from Alexander Kerfoot, which Vlasic got a stick on. The puck went off of Vlasic’s stick to hit Landeskog in the torso as he skated to the net. It bounced off of him and landed near Martin Jones, but Rantanen got to it before Jones could get a glove on it. Assists went to Landeskog and Kerfoot.

The Sharks took back their two-goal lead on a power play at 12:39 of the third. Kevin Labanc was above the faceoff circle, skating toward the net. He looked very much like he would shoot, but he passed at the last second, finding Pavelski across the ice with an open net. It was Pavelski’s 36th goal of the season and assists went to Labanc and Couture.

Colorado would not sit still for that and Samuel Girard got one back with a shot off the rush at 13:27. The shot went cleanly through quite a bit of traffic. Assists went to Landeskog and Nathan McKinnon.

Colorado pulled Varlamov in the final minutes, but the Sharks held them off.

The Sharks power play went 1/3, while the Avalanche power play went 1/2. Evander Kane and Erik Karlsson were both out of the lineup Friday.

The Sharks next play on Sunday at 7:00 PM PT in San Jose, against the Chicago Blackhawks.