Even strength!
Colorado capitalizes on stellar play from MacKinnon, Grubauer to tie series
In an exhilarating atmosphere Thursday night at the Pepsi Center, the Avalanche guaranteed its fans of more potential fun in the same building Monday.
The Avs, behind all-star forwards Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabe Landeskog, plus goalie Philipp Grubauer and a perfect penalty kill, defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-0 to tie the Western Conference semifinal series 2-2.
Game 5 is Saturday at San Jose. Game 6 — which was tentative going into Thursday — is booked for Monday back at the PC.
MacKinnon scored the first goal, and Colin Wilson got the second on the power play. Rantanen had primary assists on both, and Landeskog played a factor in both plays. Grubauer was tremendous, again, and San Jose was held scoreless on the power play (0-of-2).
Defenseman Erik Johnson added a 190-foot empty-net goal — he shot the puck from behind the Avs’ goal line — with 1:09 to play.
Winners of nine of their last 10 home games dating to the regular season, the Avs improved to 3-1 at the Pepsi Center this postseason. Colorado is looking to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2002.
MacKinnon produced his
team-high sixth goal of the playoffs midway through the second period, and Wilson cashed in a brilliant pass by Rantanen to make it 2-0 early in the third.
Rantanen also assisted on MacKinnon’s goal, but his helper on Wilson’s goal was a worldclass play. From the top of the goalmouth, while falling to the ice, Rantanen delivered a blind pass to Wilson with the tip of his stick blade, and Wilson slapped the puck in from in front of the right post.
Seconds earlier, Landeskog had kept the puck in the offensive zone with a nice play inside the blue line.
The Avalanche scored the game’s all-important first goal on a broken play. Defenseman Sam Girard took a pass off his skate, and just before a Sharks forward could get to the loose puck, Girard slapped it over to partner Cale Makar. Makar threw it toward the net and Rantanen redirected it on goalie Martin Jones. MacKinnon cashed in on the rebound to extend his playoff points streak to eight games.
MacKinnon has scored in every game since the Game 1 opener against Calgary in the first round.
MacKinnon had a glorious chance to double the lead late in the second period but was stoned by Jones with a kick save in front of the right post. And then Grubauer did the same on Gus Nyquist, stopping the Sharks forward with a kick save on a breakaway back-hand bid.
San Jose outshot Colorado 1210 in the penalty-free first period. Both teams took two penalties in the second period, allowing the game to open up. Footnotes. Avs forward Matt Calvert returned to the lineup after missing Game 3 with an upper-body injury. He replaced Sven Andrighetto, who was a healthy scratch along with defensemen Patrik Nemeth, Mark Barberio and Ryan Graves. Colorado also is carrying five players from the American Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles, who were eliminated from the playoffs. Among them are forwards Logan O’Connor and A.J. Greer, who could become full-time Avs next season. … The Avalanche will practice Friday before departing for San Jose.