In Denver, the Colorado Avalanche scored twice, late in the third period, to snap a 2-2 tie with the San Jose Sharks and win, 4-2.
Mikko Rantanen broke the tie at 12:17 of the frame.
“Mikko, he got better as the game went on,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought he had a little bit of a slow start to the game, but he comes up clutch on a big power-play goal. Great pass from ‘Naz.’ It was a little bit of a broken play, but they find a way to get it to the open man, and he made no mistake on it.”
The winner came off the power play.
Pavel Francouz made 25 saves in the Avs win.
“It was a great game from us since the start,” Francouz said. “They evened it up a little bit in the second, and the third period was something I’ve never experienced before. We just played in their zone all the time, and they barely got some shots. So that was unreal.”
Colorado improved to 48-14-6.
Timo Meier and Brent Burns were the Sharks strikers.
“They’re a good team over there,” Meier said. “They’ve got a lot of firepower. We’ve got to improve and bring more to beat a team like that.”
Andre Burakovsky added insurance in the 16th minute of the period for the 4-2 final.
“[Nazem Kadri ] makes a play around the back of the net into [Johnson]” Bednar said. “He just shoots it, we get a great rebound, and [Burakovsky] puts it in the back of the net. That’s what we need.”
The Sharks fell to 29-30-8.
Alex Newhook scored to give the Avs a 1-0 lead, Darren Helm also scored for Colorado.
“[Newhook] got one finally, too, and on a beautiful play,” Bednar said. “He pops into the middle of the ice, and [Kurtis] MacDermid, I think, found him in the middle for the one-timer.”
Kaapo Kahkonen made 42 saves in the San Jose loss.
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