Sharks Fall 5-3 to Avalanche in Hard Fought Game

Colorado Avalanche right wing Valeri Nichushkin (13) lights the lamp for the game winner in the third period against San Jose Sharks defenseman Brent Burns (88) at SAP Arena in San Jose on Fri Mar 18, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks lost to the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Friday. Cale Makar, Nazem Kadri, Valeri Nichushkin, and Darren Helm scored for the Avalanche. Pavel Francouz made 25 saves for the win. Jeffrey Viel, Rudolfs Balcers and Erik Karlsson scored for the Sharks. Zach Sawchenko made 24 saves in the loss.

After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said:

“It was a fairly even game for the first two periods. We just got to capitalize on our chances. Same thing as last night. We didn’t have any goal support. But defensively, we did some right things until we started opening it up a little bit at the end. Obviously we gave a few breaks but all in all, you know, it was a hard-fought game. I thought the guys battled hard, especially after a back-to-back, against the best team in the League.”

Sharks forward Rudolfs Balcers talked about how the veteran leaders helped the team rally in the third period, despite being down 4-1: “They’re our leaders. They’ve been around for a while, you know. That’s the guys you rely on every night, and, you know, when you see them go out there and battle until the end, you know, I think it just motivates the whole bench.”

One of those leaders, Logan Couture, seemed to score the first goal of the game at 6:07 of the first. Unfortunately, the Avalanche challenged the goal for offside. Upon review, the officials saw that Couture did cross the line a hair before the puck.

The first goal, then, went to the Avalanche on a power play at 10:08. Nazem Kadri tipped Mikko Rantanen’s pass from about eight feet above the blue paint. a second assist went to Cale Makar.

Darren Helm made it 2-0 at 14:14, when he picked up a puck that Erik Karlsson lost control of in the Sharks’ zone. Helm slipped by Karlsson and lifted the puck over Sawchenko. An assist went to Andre Burakovsky, who poked the puck off of Karlsson’s stick.

Jacob Middleton fought Kurtis MacDermid after the first goal. J.T. Compher and Marc-Edouard Vlasic had matching roughing minors in the final seconds of the period.

Those matching minors put the teams four-on-four to start the second period. Cale Makar scored 34 seconds in. He took a shot from above the circle, then gathered up his own rebound just above the goal line to score. Assists went to Nathan MacKinnon and Devon Toews.

Valeri Nichushkin made it 4-0 at 15:29. Initially, he redirected pass from Cale Makar, but Sawchenko stopped that. The goalie left a rebound and Nchushkin was still there to lift the puck in. Assists went to Makar and MacKinnon.

Jeffrey Viel got the Sharks on the board at 19:19, tipping a shot from Marc-Edouard Vlasic. A secondary assist went to Nicolas Meloche.

Rudolfs Balcers scored 13:02 into the third period. He knocked the puck loose with a hit along the boards and then took it to the net for a look-away shot, aided by Vlasic who was there to make it a two-on-one and sell the look. Assists went to Alexander Barabanov and Tomas Hertl.

With 3:21 remaining, the Sharks pulled Sawchenko for an extra skater. Erik Karlsson made it 4-3 with a goal at 18:35. Logan Couture knocked down a high clearing attempt and then passed it to Karlsson. Karlsson seemed to fumble the pass a bit, then gathered it for a wrist shot into the far corner.

Valeri Nichushkin scored into the empty net when he and Nathan MacKinnon went two-on-one against Brent Burns.

The Avalanche out-shot the Sharks 29-28, with the shot count close in each period. On the power play, the Sharks had five opportunities and six shots. They also gave up five short-handed shots. The Sharks had one penalty to kill, and gave up one shot, one goal and had one short-handed shot. In the face-off circle, the Sharks won 54% of the draws.

James Reimer was backing up Sawchenko Friday, and Adin Hill is injured.

The Sharks next play on Sunday against the Arizona Coyotes, in San Jose at 4:00 PM PT.

Avalanche Bury Sharks 6-2; SJ has lost 4 of last 5 games

San Jose Sharks right wing Nick Merkley, right, attempts to take the puck down ice against Colorado Avalanche right wing Valeri Nichushkin at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Sat Nov 13, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 6-2 to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver Saturday. Devon Toews, Nazem Kadri, Alex Newhook, Logan O’Connor, Andre Burakovsky and Samuel Girard scored for Colorado. Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves for the win. Logan Couture and Alexander Barabanov scored for San Jose, and Adin Hill made 25 saves in the loss.

With this loss, the Sharks fell out of a playoff spot for the first time in this young season. Although they had their veterans back from COVID-19 protocol, having to kill four penalties in the first period hurt the team.

After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said: “You start putting your big boys out there, killing penalties and you lose the flow of your game and we could never get it back.” Boughner mentioned mishandled pucks and bad changes, then summarized: “We started doing things that were uncharacteristic. And there were some guys who looked like they hadn’t played in a long time.”

Sharks forward Tomas Hertl mentioned defensive zone turnovers and how they lead to penalties when tired skaters are trapped in their own zone. In terms of offense, he said: “We need everybody to step it up because we are a team, you know, with 20 guys and we are no team with one line. So today wasn’t good enough.”

Logan Couture gave the Sharks the lead early in the first. While Timo Meier created a screen, Couture’s one-timer from the wing beat Kuemper on the near side. Assists went to Mario Ferraro and Meier.

Devon Toews tied the game at 10:10 wth a power play goal. His shot went by a couple of skaters in the slot and under Adin Hill. Assists went to Samuel Girard and Nazem Kadri.

Nazem Kadri gave the Avalanche the lead just a few minutes later. Valeri Nichushkin’s pass found Kadri breaking away. Kadri drew Hill to the front of the blue paint before slipping the puck around behind the goaltender. Assists went to Nichushkin and Erik Johnson.

The Sharks had to kill four penalties in the first period. In all, their penalty kill gave up six shots and one goal. Despite the penalties, the Sharks still got 12 shots on goal to the Avalanche’s ten. In the face-off circle, the Sharks won 46% of the draws.

Alex Newhook made it 3-1 with his first NHL goal, at 13:55 of the second period. Sam Girard made a pass form the red line to Newhook on the far side of the net, and Newhook shot it past a spawling Hill. Assists went to Girard and Jayson Megna.

Logan O’Connor added a short-handed goal for the Avalanche a couple of minutes later. O’Connor broke away, evading Brent Burns and Timoe Meier before scoring with a backhand. Assists went to Darren Helm and Erik Johnson.

The Avalanche outshot the Sharks 11-8, and won 53% of the face-offs. The Sharks penalty kill allowed two shots. The Sharks power play got one shot on goal.

Alexander Barabanov scored a power play goal for the Sharks at 9:02 of the third period. Tomas Hertl made a shot pass form the boards to Barabanov, who was ready to take a shot into the far side. Jasper Weatherby was right in front of Kuemper so the goalie didn’t see the shot. Assists went to Tomas Hert and Erik Karlsson.

Andre Burakovsky killed any momentum from the power play goal with a goal a little more than a minute later. Samuel Girard took a slap shot from just above the face-off circle, and hit Gabriel Landeskog. As Landeskog fell, the rebound went right to Buraskovky for the scoring shot. Assists went to Landeskog and Girard.

Samuel Girard scored Colorado’s sixth of the night at 16:37, into an empty net. Nazem Kadri got the assist.

For the game, the Sharks had a face-off win percentage of 52, and 30 shots to the Avalanche’s 31.

The Sharks’ next game will be Tuesday in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild at 6:00 PM PT.

Sharks Shut Out 3-0 by Avalanche

By Mary Walsh

The Sharks fell 3-0 to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Thursday. Goals came from Nazem Kadri (2) and Andre Burakovsky. Colorado goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves for the win. Sharks goaltender Devan Dubnyk made 35 saves in the loss. It was the first time the Sharks were shut out this season.

If there was a lost opportunity in the game, it was the Sharks’ three first period power plays. After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said:

“First of all, we’re losing draws on the power play, so we’re chasing pucks down the ice. Then, we get in, we get set up, we get a shot and, you know, no retrieval. They get it back down. So now you’ve gone up and down the ice twice and you don’t have any gas. We gotta win more draws on the power play. They sniffed out a couple of our entries, we made a change between the first and second but we never got to use it, we never had a power play after that.”

Of the Sharks’ defensive game, goaltender Devan Dubnyk said: “I thought the guys played great, honestly. I thought we made very, very good adjustments from last game. We got a little bit away from it in the third I think when they got the two. But if you look at the adjustments that we made in the first two periods it was huge, and that’s how we have to play that team to be successful.”

The first period was close in shots (7-6 Sharks) but less balanced in other respects. The Avalanche dominated in the face-off circle at 59%, and also in penalty minutes, taking three penalties to the Sharks’ one. Colorado had one shot in their power play, and the Sharks had two in three tries.

The second period saw the shot count tip to Colorado, 12-6. The Sharks took two penalties in the period and had no power plays. The Sharks improved in the face-off circle to 50%.

After five shots off the post, Colorado finally broke through in the third period. Nazem Kadri scored at 9:55. The Sharks had just finished two good offensive pushes and had just changed lines. Colorado converged in the slot and, with Joonas Donskoi down and five bodies in front of Dubnyk, Kadri found himself outside the scramble with a view of an open net corner. Assists went to Brandon Saad and Donskoi.

Moments later, Logan Couture and Brent Burns collided in front of their net, both in pursuit of the same Colorado player. Couture’s skate made contact with Burns’ ankle and he seemed to be in distress on the bench. A few minutes later Burns could still be seen trying to walk it off. He missed a shift or so before getting back on the ice.

Colorado scored again at 11:53 on a three-on-two. Drawing the Sharks to the right, Kadri made a pass across the center to Andre Burakovsky who had just arrived at the net, ready for a deflection. Assists went to Kadri and Saad.

The Sharks had a power play in the final four minutes but couldn’t score, though they pulled Dubnyk for an extra skater and did manage two shots. Then they found themselves killing a penalty with just 1:14 to go after Noah Gregor was called for tripping Gabriel Landeskog. With six seconds left in the period, Nazem Kadri tipped Cale Makar’s shot from the blue line. Assists went to Makar and Nathan MacKinnon.

Colorado’s Pierre-Edouard Bellemare left the game in the first period, with a lower body injury. He was injured after Ryan Donato lost an edge and collided with him.

The Sharks are scheduled to play on Monday. They will be in their temporary home arena in Arizona, playing the Vegas Golden Knights at 6:00 PM PT. There is some doubt about that schedule as the Golden Knights may not play due to COVID-19 exposure.