MacKinnonn leads Avs past Sharks
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs San Jose Sharks.Nathan McKinnon had his second career hat trick and scored two of the Colorado Avalanche's season-high four power-play goals in a 6-3 victory against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Monday.
Carl Soderberg and Blake Comeau had power-play goals for Colorado (18-17-2), which went 4-for-6 with the man-advantage. Matt Duchene had an even-strength goal.
MacKinnon scored an empty-net goal with 1:28 left for the hat trick.
The Avalanche defeated the Sharks in San Jose for the first time since Feb. 6, 2008.
The four power play goals allowed were a season-high for San Jose (17-16-2), which fell to 4-10-0 at home.
Patrick Marleau, Melker Karlsson and Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks. Goaltender Martin Jones allowed five goals on 25 shots.
Avalanche backup goaltender Calvin Pickard made 35 saves in his first NHL start of the season. Pickard was recalled Friday from San Antonio of the American Hockey League and replaced the injured Reto Berra (ankle) on the active roster.
Jarome Iginla, who scored his 599th career goal Sunday against the Arizona Coyotes, had an assist but did not score Monday.
Colorado took a 3-2 lead into the third period, and Comeau made it 4-2 at 7:09 with a power-play goal at 7:09, but Hertl answered with his fourth goal of the season at 8:07.
MacKinnon quickly gave Colorado another two-goal lead. With Tommy Wingels in the penalty box for hooking, MacKinnon scored from the left circle at 8:44.
The Sharks had four penalties in the first period to none for Colorado, and the Avalanche capitalized, scoring two power-play goals to take a 2-1 lead.
After San Jose killed its 21st straight penalty, MacKinnon scored a power-play goal at 8:46 on a 3-on-2 rush with Joe Thornton in the box for tripping Duchene.
Iginla sent the puck ahead to Soderberg, who passed it to MacKinnon in the right circle. MacKinnon beat Jones with a wrist shot, giving him 11 goals for the season.
Colorado scored the first goal for the 10th straight game.
The Sharks pulled even 81 seconds later on Marleau's 14th goal of the season. Colorado forward Jack Skille turned the puck over along the boards, and Joel Ward sent it to Marleau, who skated past Francois Beauchemin, cut to the middle and sent a wrist shot that bounced off of Pickard's glove and over the goal line at 10:07.
Colorado made it 2-1 at 14:28 of the first period when Soderberg redirected Beauchemin's shot from the point past Jones on the power play with Brenden Dillon in the penalty box for hooking.
Duchene extended Colorado's lead to 3-1 at 11:19 of the second with his team-high 17th goal of the season. He got the puck along the left boards, skated along the goal line toward the post, spun and beat Jones with a backhand shot through traffic that appeared to deflect off a Sharks defenseman.
The goal was Duchene's 143rd of his career and moved him past Dale Hunter into sole possession of 10th place on the franchise's all-time list. Hunter played for the Quebec Nordiques from 1980-87 and 12 games for the Avalanche during the 1998-99 season.
Karlsson cut Colorado's lead to 3-2 at 13:58 of the second with his fourth goal of the season and first since Nov. 19 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Thornton sent a pass from below the goal line to Karlsson in the slot, where he beat Pickard with a wrist shot.
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog was hit in the face with the puck on a shot by Sharks defenseman Dylan DeMelo and went to the dressing room with 7:17 left in the second period, but he returned for the start of the third.
-- by Eric Gilmore for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
29/12/2015 - 07:30
