Colorado goaltender stifles San Jose attack
DENVER — Gabriel Bourque and Tyson Jost scored 2:14 apart in the second period, Jonathan Bernier stopped 39 shots and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Sharks 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Colorado returned from a six-game road trip and won its ninth straight at the Pepsi Center, the club’s longest home winning streak since moving to Denver in 1995. The Avalanche are 19-7-1 at home this season.
Bernier has played “well the last two times we played them, but there’s things you can do better,” Sharks forward Joe Pavelski told NHL.com. “You get that many shots, maybe not get enough second chance rebounds. You just have to be better.”
Colorado struggled to generate many scoring chances without injured Nathan MacKinnon (left shoulder) and Mikko Rantanen (lower body), the team’s top two scorers. In their absence, the Avalanche were outshot 39-20.
“I’m definitely feeling good, but even last year I had a really good stretch,” Bernier, who has gone 11-2-1 in his past 14 games, told NHL.com. “I think this one, to win that many in a row, that was pretty special.”
The Sharks pulled goalie Martin Jones in the final minute and had a flurry of chances to tie it, but J.T. Compher iced the game with an emptynet goal with three seconds remaining.
Jones stopped 17 shots for the Sharks, who have won just twice in their past seven games. Joel Ward scored his first goal since Nov. 22.
San Jose had 16 of the first 20 shots but found itself down 2-0 early in the second.
Bourque opened the scoring 2:31 into the period after the Sharks turned the puck over in their own zone. Jost took control and pushed it ahead to Compher, who slid an expert pass along the crease to Bourque for his third goal of the season.
The Avalanche added to it as they connected on two long passes to set up Jost. The 19-year-old split two defenders just in front of the blue line and beat Jones’ glove for his fourth of the season.
Ward cut the deficit to 2-1 with 6:31 left in the period after scoring on a rebound. The goal was originally waved off, but video replay showed the puck sneaked just inside.
The Sharks outshot the Avalanche 26-10 through two periods.
“As a road trip, we probably deserved to be better than what we were,” Pavelski told NHL.com. “Right around that .500 mark, which keeps you in it, but you don’t really gain any ground. Now we’ve got to go to work the rest of the way.”