SHARKS GET 4-2 WIN; PLAYOFFS ON HOLD
The effort was excellent, but the execution wasn’t good enough.
The Avalanche played extremely hard Thursday night but blew a glorious chance to improve its Western Conference playoff odds at the SAP Center, losing 4-2 to the San Jose Sharks.
Colorado, which remains a point ahead of St. Louis for the last wildcard spot, finished 0-2-1 on its threegame trip and slipped to 2-5-1 in its last eight games.
Still, the Avs (93 points) will clinch a playoff spot by defeating the Blues in regulation in Saturday night’s regular-season finale for both teams at the Pepsi Center. But if St. Louis (92 points) loses at Chicago on Friday night, the Avs will advance to the postseason with a regulation or overtime victory Saturday.
Sharks forwards Logan Couture (power play) and Joonas Donskoi scored third-period goals after the Avs’ Mikko Rantanen tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal at 4:43 of the period. After Rantanen finally broke the ice for Colorado, the Sharks retook the lead just 1:17 later by scoring their own power-play goal with Blake Comeau in the penalty box for high sticking.
Donskoi made it 3-1 at 10:14, but Colorado countered at 13:06 with Comeau’s redirection goal off a shot from defenseman David Warsofsky.
San Jose was outshooting the Avs 24-16 after two periods, but the actual play was much closer than that. The Avs simply shot high or wide too many times. The MGM Line — center Nathan MacKinnon, left winger Gabe Landeskog and Rantanen — combined for five shots through two periods, but none by Rantanen, who scored on his first shot of the game early in the third.
San Jose was the better team at the outset, scoring 2:58 into the game and outshooting Colorado 9-1 in the first nine minutes. But the Avs came alive and took it to the Sharks the rest of the period but failed to tie it before the first intermission.
Defenseman Justin Braun scored the game’s first goal with a slap shot from the right point. The puck caromed off shot-blocking Avs forward Gabriel Bourque and behind goalie Jonathan Bernier.