Philipp Grubauer stopped 27 shots, Matt Calvert scored a shorthanded goal, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks 4-0 in Denver on Thursday night.

Valeri Nichushkin, Cale Makar and Ryan Graves also scored for Colorado, which snapped a four-game skid (0-2-2) and beat the Sharks for the first time in its last five regular-season meetings. San Jose outlasted the Avalanche in the second round of last year's Western Conference playoffs with a home win in Game 7.

The shutout was Grubauer's first of the season and 10th of his career. He has blanked San Jose twice in six matchups, and also blanked the Sharks in Game 4 of their playoff series last spring.

Martin Jones had 34 saves for San Jose, which has lost two straight.

The Avalanche got on the board early when Nichushkin skated down the left boards, went around defenseman Brent Burns and slid the puck between Jones' pads just 45 seconds into the game.

It was Nichushkin's eighth goal of the season.

Colorado made it 2-0 with a goal late in the first period. Nazem Kadri won a faceoff in the San Jose zone back to Makar at the point, and the rookie sent a shot that handcuffed Jones, beating the goalie with 2.8 seconds left for Makar's 10th.

Colorado weathered an early push by San Jose to start the second, and halfway through added to its lead. Vladislav Kamenev won a faceoff with Joe Thornton, back to Graves, who one-timed a slapshot by Jones at 9:59. It marked Graves' seventh goal this season.

The Sharks had a chance to cut into the lead when they got their first power-play chance of the game. San Jose forward Barclay Goodrow tried to pass the puck into the Colorado zone but Pierre-Edouard Bellemare poked it into the neutral zone, where Calvert picked it up.

He skated in on Jones and at the top of the crease shot the puck to the far side at 12:42. It was his 12th of the season.

--Field Level Media