In San Jose, all seemed well for the Colorado Avalanche as they broke out to a 2-0 lead through the early minutes of the second period on Monday night over the Sharks.
Gabriel Landeskog and Samuel Girard posted markers and the Avs appeared on their way to dominate the home side.
“We kind of gave this one away,” Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen said. “We gave up too many chances. We started the third period, it’s a 2-2 hockey game on the road and we started the first five minutes in the [defensive zone]. I don’t think that’s the start you’re looking for. It was very frustrating.”
That would be an understatement as the Sharks reeled off six unanswered goals on their way to a 6-2 thrashing for the Avs.
Martin Jones made 33 saves. in the win after settling down in the opening frame.
Four of the six goals came in the third period and started when Rudolfs Balcers broke a 2-2 tie.
“I think we played with a little bit of [an angry] attitude after the last couple games,” San Jose head coach Bob Boughner said. “We’re a different team than when we went into Colorado at the start of the season (7-3 and 3-0 losses on Jan. 26 and 28). We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I like the chemistry I’m seeing.”
Erik Karlsson and Radim Simek scored for the first time this season.
“I felt like we didn’t hesitate,” Karlsson said. “We didn’t play not to lose tonight. I thought that we played to win the game. That doesn’t mean that that’s always going to happen, but it felt like that was our mentality going into the third.”
John Leonard and Evander Kane (empty net) scored the final two goals of the game.
“When we built the 2-0 lead, we got stubborn,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We turned the puck over, got fancy and kind of got away from our game. We had way too many turnovers. We were bringing it on ourselves. The scoring chances they had were coming off our mismanagement of the puck. We’re sleeping and getting outworked coming to our net on a few of these. We just turned it into a track meet with a highly skilled team that plays with pace.”
Kevin Leblanc also scored for San Jose, he tied the game at 2-2 in the middle frame.
Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves in the loss.
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