Couture does trick for Sharks
Logan Couture scored three times, including the go-ahead goal with 7:10 remaining, and the visiting San Jose Sharks defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 on Tuesday night to take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series.
Couture sent a shot over the shoulder of Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer just 65 seconds after Matt Nieto tied the score, and he sealed it on an emptynet goal with 29.5 seconds remaining.
Timo Meier also scored for the Sharks, who improved to 24-16 all-time in Game 3 of a series.
Game 4 is Thursday in Denver.
It has been an exciting few days for Sharks center Gustav Nyquist, whose wife gave birth to a daughter Monday. He returned to the team before the game and recorded two assists. Martin Jones stopped 25 shots.
Nathan MacKinnon had a short-handed goal and Nieto added another to help the Avalanche rebound from a 2-0 first-period deficit. Grubauer made 27 saves for Colorado, which had its eight-game home win streak snapped.
Sergei Bobrovsky kept up his impressive postseason play, making 35 saves as the Blue Jackets took a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Boone Jenner and Matt Duchene scored for the Blue Jackets, who won a secondround home game for first time in franchise history.
Game 4 of the best-ofseven series is Thursday night.
Tuukka Rask had 32 saves for Boston. The Bruins’ only goal was a fluky one in the last minute of the second period, the only blemish in an otherwise brilliant game by Bobrovsky, who is having the best postseason of his career thus far.
Bobrovsky withstood a flurry by Boston earlier in the second period, including an acrobatic save that saw him sweep away a puck from in front of the goal line. The Bruins pulled Rask with 2:11 left but couldn’t beat Bobrovsky with the six-on-five advantage.
“I thought we stayed together in the third period,” Bobrovsky said. “Obviously they had a good push, we stood together, we worked for each other and we got rewarded.”