~ Photo credit: NHL.com

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ The Colorado Avalanche’s Jonathan Bernier posted his best save percentage since January 4 as the San Jose Sharks fell 3-1 Tuesday night at Pepsi Center.

Bernier earned the first star of the game with a .974 save percentage, while the Sharks’ Martin Jones fired 39 shots.

Sharks coach Pete DeBoer joked, “Bernier’d be making $20 million a year if he was playing us every night.”

It was the least amount of shots Jones has faced since January 13 when he was pulled from the game.

With one game left between the teams, the Avalanche clinched the season series with another two-goal win versus San Jose.

Gabriel Bourque, J.T. Compher and Tyson Jost were the Avalanche’s scorers and Joel Ward put the Sharks on the board.

San Jose out-peppered the Avalanche 39-20 and 14-3 in the first period.

Things were looking good as Colorado was held shotless for ¾ of the opening period. The Sharks won faceoffs 72% to 28%, but the Avalanche blocked 11 shots. Four of those blocks came during the Sharks’ power play. San Jose’s Joonas Donskoi and Joe Pavelski each had three shots. Colorado’s Nikita Zadorov had five hits.

The Avalanche swiftly recovered in the second, though, creating an uphill battle for the Sharks.  

Brenden Dillon was on his way out to clear, but fell. Jost recovered the puck at the blue line before passing it to Compher. The swift pass helped enable a 2-on-1, which Compher used to his advantage. With Jones situated near him, Compher passed far side to Bourque, who sent the puck over Jones’ right pad to make it 1-0 at 2:31.

Colorado doubled their lead just over two minutes later using a pretty pass. The puck traveled from Girard at the far faceoff circle to Yakupov at the far blue line to Jost at the near blue line. Jost sped up before shooting past Jones.

San Jose slashed the lead in half at 13:29. Ward scored after the puck went off a defender as Ward hit the goal cam, but the tally was initially waved off. It was Ward’s first goal since November 22.

In the third period, Justin Braun and Jones helped prevent a 3-on-1 attempt. The Sharks’ Timo Meier also fished the puck off the tape to stop a goal.

Compher made it 3-1 with four seconds left with an empty-net goal.

Some of San Jose’s Logan Couture’s comments were, “some mental lapses, they’re a quick team, they’re quick in transition.”

Game notes: The Avalanche were without Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon this time.

The Sharks completed their five-game road trip with a 2-2-1 record.  They will now hold a two-game homestand. First up, the division-leading Vegas Golden Knights Thursday at 7:30pm.