Postgame Wrap: Avalanche Enter Olympic Break On Winning Note

The Avalanche are entering the Olympic break on a winning note. Following Wednesday night’s 4-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks at Ball Arena, Colorado enters the lengthy time off with a 37-9-9 record on the season and 21-3-4 at home.

Artturi Lehkonen had two goals. After a brief scare in the third period, Josh Manson tallied the game-winner before Brock Nelson capped off the night with an empty-netter. Valeri Nichushkin had three assists, and Nathan MacKinnon finished with two helpers, including the 700th of his career.

Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves as Colorado outshot San Jose 42-25. Yaroslav Askarov made 38 stops for the Sharks.

“We wanted to concentrate on our start and get on our toes a little bit here offensively,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “We’ve been having some games recently where it’s like five, six, nine shots a period. And when we’re really good and on our toes, we shoot for 15, you know, we want to be 12-15, a period, and give ourselves some good looks at the net. So that’s what we talked about.”

With the game knotted up at 2-2, Brent Burns was on his way to the box for tripping. Before the Avs could touch the puck, on the delay call, Burns’ stick was slashed by Macklin Celebrini, setting up a 4-on-4 for two minutes.

Colorado avoided a penalty kill. And while playing 4-on-4, Manson tallied his fifth of the season with 7:16 remaining to regain a lead that was lost earlier in the frame.

“It was kind of middle of the net. It was a screen,” Manson said.

The Avalanche came out flying. From the opening faceoff, they attacked the Sharks, created scoring chances, and were excellent at maintaining possession.

Had it not been for Askarov, Colorado could’ve easily been up by two or three goals through the first 20 minutes. Askarov stopped all 14 shots he faced. Blackwood was perfect on just five shots at the other end.

The second period began and the first goal followed shortly after. The Avs got on the Sharks right away again. After an initial save by Askarov, both teams battled in the crease for the loose puck and Lehkonen was able to tuck it home at 1:05.

The officials reviewed the play and confirmed that it would count. It was Lehkonen’s 18th of the season and his first in seven games.

Askarov continued to make strong saves until Lehkonen eventually added a second tally. MacKinnon fed it to his winger, who scored at 15:47 to make it 2-0.

Colorado went into the second period with a 32-12 shot advantage, including an 18-7 lead in the middle frame.

This game was all Avs. But the Sharks would not go away.

San Jose had an extra jump to start the third. It took just 43 seconds for them to finally break through and end Blackwood’s shutout bid. Timothy Liljegren fired it from the left circle, and the puck deflected off the stick of Avs forward Parker Kelly before taking an errant bounce over Blackwood’s pad.

The Sharks used that as a springboard to gain momentum. They got multiple odd-man rushes and had several shots coming up the wing, going one-on-one with the goalie. At 3:34, Philipp Kurashev scored to tie it up.

Blackwood had to make a handful of big saves after that, including a shoulder save on Kiefer Sherwood in his San Jose debut. Celebrini also had a good scoring chance from in between the hashmarks, but hit the post.

San Jose has lost three consecutive games in regulation heading into the break.

Good: The Avalanche Looked Like Themselves Again

It had been a while since the Avalanche dominated a game like that. Aside from the early parts of the third period, they were all over the Sharks. They suppressed the opposition’s chances, they forechecked well, and they cycled the puck with ease in the offensive zone.

It’s unfortunate that they could only muster two goals through the first 40 minutes, but Askarov was the biggest reason why. Aside from a struggling power play, the Avalanche were not letting up.

They need the break. But they also needed to be that team again one more time before the break.

Bad: Third Period Start

That can’t happen. After playing two nearly perfect periods, the Avs needed to come out for the third and close this game out. They shouldn’t have let the Sharks back in it.

The first goal was a fortunate bounce for San Jose, going off a stick, then up and over Blackwood. But after that goal, you could see the Sharks starting to smell blood, and the game-tying goal felt inevitable.

Losing this game after those first 40 minutes would’ve left a sour taste in everybody’s mouth. They managed to regroup and still get the two points in regulation. But you just can’t let that comeback happen.