Evander Kane produced a three-point night, and the San Jose Sharks, trailing by two goals early in the second period, scored six consecutive goals to defeat the visiting Colorado Avalanche 6-2 on Monday.
Radim Simek, Kevin Labanc, Rudolfs Balcers, Erik Karlsson and John Leonard all found the back of the net for San Jose before Kane added an empty-net tally. Timo Meier contributed to the offense with three assists, Kane had two assists and Balcers had one assist. Martin Jones made 33 saves to improve to 2-3-1 in his past six starts.
Samuel Girard and Gabriel Landeskog notched Colorado's goals, and Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves in the loss.
Girard opened up scoring with 1:28 left in the first period. Just as Colorado's second power-play opportunity of the period expired, the Colorado blueliner skated in close and wristed the puck past Jones to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead.
The Sharks attempted to even things up on the following shift when Girard turned the puck over and Patrick Marleau had a breakaway, but Grubauer kept the veteran center from converting.
Landeskog doubled the lead on a power play at 4:21 of the second period. He scooped up MacKinnon's rebound and backhanded it over Jones' shoulder to give Colorado a 2-0 lead.
The margin lasted less than two minutes, though, as Simek beat Grubauer five-hole at 6:31. With 3:12 left in the middle frame, Kane set up Labanc for an up-close tap-in that eluded Grubauer and tied the game 2-2.
Balcers buried the go-ahead goal at 4:18 of the third period. He gave the puck a backhanded shovel past Grubauer's pad, with a little help from Meier tying up Nazem Kadri's stick in front of Colorado's net.
With San Jose on the power play just a couple minutes later, Karlsson's slap shot from the blue line buzzed through traffic to increase the lead to 4-2 at 7:53.
Leonard boosted the margin when he picked up the puck on a breakaway and beat Grubauer up close for a 5-2 edge at 10:11.
Grubauer was pulled with 2:12 left in regulation as the teams skated four-on-four with Kadri and Ryan Donato in the penalty box for roughing, opening up the door for Kane to bury the empty-net goal with 1:07 to go.
--Field Level Media
Colorado | San Jose | |
Samuel Girard 1 | Points | Evander Kane 3 |
Samuel Girard 1 | Goals | Evander Kane 1 |
Andre Burakovsky 1 | Assists | Timo Meier 3 |
Gabriel Landeskog 1 | Power Play Goals | Erik Karlsson 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Philipp Grubauer .808 | Save Percentage | Martin Jones .943 |
Philipp Grubauer 21 | Saves | Martin Jones 33 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Colorado | 35 | 2 | 1-4 | 2-3 | 8 | 30 |
San Jose | 27 | 6 | 1-3 | 3-4 | 10 | 21 |