Sharks outlast Avalanche in shootout
The official game recap San Jose Sharks vs Colorado Avalanche.Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau scored in the shootout to give the San Jose Sharks a 5-4 victory against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.
Colorado scored twice in 12 seconds late in regulation to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead, but Joe Pavelski forced overtime by beating Semyon Varlamov with 20 seconds remaining.
After a scoreless overtime, Couture and Marleau beat Varlamov in the tiebreaker, and Antti Niemi stopped both Colorado attempts to give the Sharks back-to-back shootout wins.
The Sharks won their 11th straight regular-season home game against Colorado. The Avalanche's last regular-season win at San Jose was on Feb. 6, 2008.
The Sharks improved to 8-0-1 in their past nine games at SAP Center and 13-1-3 for the season.
San Jose led 3-2 late in the third period before the wild finish. Erik Johnson and Jamie McGinn scored 12 seconds apart to give Colorado a 4-3 lead, but with Niemi on the bench for an extra attacker Pavelski took a pass from Joe Thornton and scored from the slot.
Johnson tied the game 3-3 on a slap shot from the blue line at 18:09, four seconds after a Colorado power play had expired. Colorado had pulled Varlamov late in the power play and had an extra attacker on the ice when Johnson scored.
McGinn then deflected John Mitchell's shot from the left circle past Niemi to put Colorado ahead.
Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog also scored goals for Colorado. Jason Demers, Brent Burns and Matt Irwin scored for the Sharks.
Varlamov made 41 saves in 65 minutes. Niemi stopped 29 shots.
The Sharks had gone 0-for-12 on the power play in their previous four games before getting power-play goals from Demers and Irwin.
The Avalanche built a 2-1 lead in a spirited first period that featured two fights in the first meeting of the season between the teams.
MacKinnon gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 11:05 with a power-play goal after drawing a tripping penalty on Tommy Wingels. He fired a shot from the high slot that deflected off of San Jose defenseman Andrew Desjardins' stick and past Niemi.
The Sharks pulled even at 13:59 on Demers' power-play goal. From near the goal line, Thornton angled a pass above the left circle to Demers, who ripped a shot over Varlamov's shoulder and inside the left post.
Demers had gone 44 regular-season games without a goal before scoring his first of the season Saturday night against the Dallas Stars. Now he has goals in back-to-back games.
Colorado moved ahead again with 49 seconds left in the period when Landeskog scored his 10th goal of the season on an odd-man rush. Landeskog took a pass from Paul Stastny in the slot and hammered the puck past Niemi, inside the left post.
Colorado outshot the Sharks 15-13 in the first period, but San Jose dominated the second. The Sharks outshot the Avalanche 21-5 and outscored them 2-0 in the period to build a one-goal lead.
Burns scored his 10th goal of the season at 5:53 to get the Sharks even. From along the right boards, Thornton hit Burns with a pinpoint pass above the right circle, and Burns blasted a shot inside the right post. The goal was Burns' second in four games after going eight games without a goal.
Irwin scored a power-play goal at 13:02 to put the Sharks ahead for the first time. With Marleau providing a screen in front of Varlamov, Irwin scored his second goal of the season on a long-range slap shot from the left point.
Earlier in the day, the Sharks announced that rookie forward Tomas Hertl would undergo surgery on his injured right knee within a week and would be out for more than a month. General manager Doug Wilson said Monday night that doctors are expected to repair two problems and check to see if there's other damage that needs to be fixed. Hertl was injured during a knee-on-knee collision with Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown on Thursday night at Staples Center.
Sharks coach Todd McLellan continued shuffling his lines in the wake of Hertl's injury. Thornton and right wing Burns were reunited after spending one game apart and skated with Joe Pavelski on the top line. Couture centered a line with Marleau and Wingels.
Martin Havlat, who played on the second line Saturday against the Dallas Stars, was a scratch against Colorado.
Colorado defenseman Jan Hejda played his 500th NHL game.
-- by Eric Gilmore for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
24/12/2013 - 08:00
