The Colorado Avalanche are in free fall. On Wednesday, the Avs dropped their sixth straight, 5-4, this time to the visiting San Jose Sharks.
The Sharks built a 5-1 lead through the early middle frame before the Avs struck for three goals in an effort to rally.
Joe Pavelski had a power play goal in win over Avs – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
The power play was effective for the Sharks as they got goals from Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski with the man advantage.
“[The power play] got us going,” Pavelski said. “I think it backed them off. We had some chances and … it’s just good to see guys ready to execute on the power play early and move the puck around.”
Martin Jones made 31 saves to help the Sharks to the win.
“We needed something here tonight,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “It was an emotional game in Calgary (8-5 loss on Monday) and it didn’t go our way. We got in at 3:30 (Tuesday morning) and I know we had a day off, but it was a tough game for us to play. We got some timely goals, we got some big efforts from our leaders and our goalie. It’s two big points.”
Tyson Jost struck twice for the Avs and Tyson Barrie and Matt Calvert added single markers.
“You hear it all the time, catch-up hockey is losing hockey,” the Avalanche’s Gabriel Landeskog said. “That’s just the way it goes. It’s too exhausting and teams are too good to be playing from behind every single night. It just doesn’t work.”
The Sharks improved to 22-13-7.
Lukas Radil, Joonas Donskoi and Evander Kane also had goals for the Sharks.
The Avs dropped to 19-14-8.
“We gutted it out and found a way to win the game,” DeBoer said.
[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Avalanche highlights]
Philipp Grubauer got the start for the Avs and was pulled after surrendering four goals; he made just 10 saves.
Pavel Francouz, made 12 saves in relief.
“We got to find a way to stop the bleeding here. We try to come out with the lead and things just, for whatever reason, don’t go our way. Instead of stopping the bleeding at one or two goals, we let them get five tonight. That’s tough.” — Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog
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