The sweep of the NHL schedule from Wednesday night starts in Denver, where the Avalanche edged the San Jose Sharks, 4-3, in the skills competition.
Calvin Pickard got the win for the Avs with a 30-save effort plus two big stops in the shootout.
“He was outstanding, he played really well,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “He was sharp, he looked confident. I thought he made the key saves at the right moment, and he was outstanding in the overtime and shootout.” 
Pickard was in net for Semyon Varlamov who was ill.
“Every night is a good chance for me to prove that I can play at this level,” Pickard said. “It keeps me on my toes. It’s been nice to get a bunch of opportunities here. If I get called upon again, I just want to take advantage of it.”
Martin Jones made 38 saves in the loss but the Sharks were 3-1-1 on their road trip.
“It’s a good trip,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “Some of the cities we’re in and how desperate some of the teams are that we’re playing, it’s a good road trip. End of a trip, fifth game in 10 nights on the road, the guys found a way to get [a point]; that’s important.”
It was almost a loss for the Sharks but Joel Ward scored 91 seconds left in regulation to send it to extra time and get the Sharks at least a point.
“He (Joe Thornton) kind of threw it from the corner, and Ward was standing there,” Pickard said. “He batted it out of the air. It would have been nice to keep it 3-2 in regulation, but it’s nice to get the two (points).”
Next up for Colorado is the Stadium Series game against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.
On a night for goalies, the Boston Bruins got a 41-save effort from Tuukka Rask as they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1, in Boston.
David Pastrnak scored twice and Jimmy Hayes, Landon Ferraro and Brad Marchand added goals for Boston.
Tuukka Rask stopped a season-high 41 shots in win over Pens – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“At the beginning, we were kind of tight a little bit,” Rask said. “We were trying, but we were just not making plays. We were kind of nervous, I guess, would be the right word. But in the third period especially, I thought we managed the situation more. Even though they had a couple chances, we never panicked. We just capitalized on our own chances and it resulted in five goals, which is great.”
The win pushed the Bruins into third in the Atlantic Division.
“I thought we had some good chances,” Penguins Sidney Crosby said. “I mean, they’re definitely good defensively, but we had 40 shots. I mean, we had some really good scoring chances, so I think the fact that you get those you’re happy to get them. You’ve got to find a way to put them in. It was probably more Rask on a bunch of them, yeah.”
Tom Kuhnhackl was the lone scorer for the Pens.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves in the loss.
The Pens got as close as 2-1 but Rask was able to stone any other advance Pittsburgh made.
“Yeah, I think I really felt tonight, although we won by a fair margin there. I really felt we were tight in the first two periods,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “Although our guys were really trying to do the right things out there, as far as not giving them too many chances, that kind of stuff, they were skating and they were a lot quicker than we were for the first two periods. The first [period] was a tough one, (I) told the guys to loosen up a little bit. Got a little bit better in the second. We looked more like ourselves in the third.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.