The three-game sweep of the NHL starts in Denver, where the San Jose Sharks used two goals from Brent Burns to take a 4-3 win over the host Avalanche.
In a wild final few minutes, Burns scored off a feed from Patrick Marleau to break a 2-2 tie and give the Sharks the lead.
“Patty made a great play delaying, created some space,” Burns said. “Their guys all just kind of collapsed down and I was able to jump in and I just kind of shot it on net. It’s nice to see chances finally go in and get rewarded.”
Joe Pavelski scored an empty-netter 19 seconds later.
“That was a big win for us,” Burns said. “Every game is so hard in this League.”
Cody McLeod scored for the Avs to tighten it up again but that was all the scoring left in the game.
“A big two points, as big as two points can get [11] games into the season,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “We needed them. We had done enough to be close, but not enough to earn a win. Whether we had won or not, with the game we played I would have been happy. It’s nice to get rewarded.
“It’s probably the most honest game we’ve played for 60 minutes in a long time. You get rewarded for that. We’ve been close, but we haven’t been [rewarded] and I thought we fixed that tonight.”
The Avs fell to 3-7-1 on the season and are not gaining traction at home or on the road.
“We don’t have the results for what we’re doing, that’s all that’s missing right now,” Avs coach Patrick Roy said. “They took advantage of a bad line change and bad positioning in our D-zone and they scored that winning goal. It’s just a frustrating situation right now. We do a lot of good things out there and we just can’t get rewarded. It’s amazing how many pucks we’re missing in front of the net. It’s just not bouncing in our favor right now, unfortunately for us. I really feel we deserved a lot better than we got.”
In Raleigh, the Tampa Bay Lightning broke out of a scoring funk and beat the Hurricanes, 4-3.
The Bolts had lost to the Boston Bruins the night before, 3-1.
“It didn’t feel like a typical back-to-back because of the mood we were in as a team, which was not a good one after the way we’ve played the last couple games,” said Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos, who scored a power-play goal. “We were down one, but we never panicked. That’s the group that we’re all familiar with.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy was back in net after recovering from surgery and made 32 saves for the win.
“Not perfect, but not bad,” Vasilevskiy said of his performance. “I did a good job.”
The Canes fell to 5-7-0 on the season.
“I think we were too loose with the puck,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. “We turned it over too many times, and it led to goals against, led to penalties, which led to momentum for them. I would probably say our decision-making wasn’t good enough.”
In Brooklyn, everything was going the New York Islanders’ way as they held a thin 1-0 lead over the Buffalo Sabres.
But Matt Moulson and Sam Reinhart scored in the third period to give the Sabres a 2-1 win.
Linus Ullmark kept the Sabres in the game protected the late lead with 29 saves for the win.
“He’s coming off his injury and rehab, and we liked a lot of what we saw from him in training camp, be it not involved in scrimmages or not involved in games,” Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. “We really wanted to see him play some games and play some North American games, which he did in Rochester. The three games he played there, he was the best player on the ice.”
The Isles skated without John Tavares who was ill.
“We’re not going to cut the excuses,” Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic said. “There’s obviously guys who are going to be in and out of the lineup throughout the whole season. Can’t anticipate those things. John’s one of the best players in the world, certainly, so you’re going to miss him. Show me a team that’s [not] going to miss their best player and one of the best in the world, and I’ll say they’re lying. We want him out there with us, but we have to duck, everyone has to pick up their own socks and have a better effort.
“You’re not going to replace what Johnny brings every night. Certainly, everybody has to up their effort.”
Calvin de Haan scored for the Islanders.
“I think just as a team, we’ve become better and better,” Ullmark said. “We buy in every day. It’s not me that’s making the difference; it’s the team that’s making the difference every game and every night. We have great confidence in our style.”
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