Photo credit: David Zalubowski AP Photo

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ With San Jose and the Colorado Avalanche’s tightest battle of the series, one could say they went a mile long in the mile high city, as Colorado edged San Jose 4-3 Wednesday.

The teams went the distance, both having recent shootout wins.

The Sharks’ Martin Jones suffered his first shootout loss of the season as he faced a season-high 41 shots, making 38 saves.

Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon showed no sign of his recent malady as he looked to continue his recent success against San Jose. He scored the first shootout goal and had a season-high eight shots, four shots apiece in the first two periods, as he searched for his first point in six games.

The Avalanche continued a trend based on number of goals scored. They have won the last five games where they have scored at least three goals.

Newcomers from the Toronto Maple Leafs highlighted the first period, as former linemates scored a pair of goals.

First at 2:10, was one of San Jose’s newcomers, Nick Spaling, who lifted his team early from the faceoff circle. All for the Sharks, on his first shift, his first shot became his first goal.  

After San Jose’s penalty expired at 6:35, Colorado challenged with a sequence of shots.

The Avalanche’s newcomer, Shawn Matthias, also scored his first goal on his first shot, as he emulated Spaling with a singlehanded goal at 13:02.

The Sharks outblocked Colorado 11-3 in the first period.

It continued to be a tight game in a scoreless second.

With 13:04 left in the second, the goal light went on, but was waved off as a false alarm.

San Jose was the first to regroup from the second and score. They got their second early in the period advantage, 1:50 into the third period. Brent Burns got the bounce off Erik Johnson’s skate. Tomas Hertl and Paul Martin aided on the play. Burns now has three points in as many games.

The 2-1 lead lasted until the Avalanche made the Sharks pay for a penalty. 22 seconds into San Jose’s second hooking penalty of the night, 38-year old Jarome Iginla scored the game’s first power play goal. Tyson Barrie and captain Gabriel Landeskog helped at 5:35 as Iginla created a five game point streak.

Landeskog got another point when he got his own rebound to give Colorado their first lead of the game. Andrew Bodnarchuk and Alex Tanguay assisted at 11:45

With 2:10 left in the game, Jones was pulled and the extra attacker eventually paid off. Burns’ shot was blocked, followed by a shot on goal by Ward. After a faceoff win, Patrick Marleau had a shot on goal and after the next faceoff win, the Sharks finally broke through backup goalie Calvin Pickard.  With 1:31 left, Ward put together the game’s third tie and ensured San Jose had at least a point. He was aided by Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski.

It was the Sharks’ Joonas Donskoi and in the second round, the two captains for each team in the shootout, but none got on the board. Matt Duchene scored after, to make MacKinnon’s shot count.

Game notes: The other newcomer for the Sharks, Roman Polak had two shots and three hits. San Jose welcomed back Brenden Dillon who had a shot, a hit and two block. Pickard was filling in for ill regular Semyon Varlamov. The Sharks return home to host the Buffalo Sabres Friday at 7:30pm