Tag: sap center

Eagles take down the Barracuda 4-1

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Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Barracuda are trying to stay afloat through stormy waters. They put forth a better effort from the other night against Tucson but still ended up on short end of the stick of a 4-1 victory by the Colorado Eagles on Friday evening at the SAP Center.

With the win, Colorado has now won two of their last three games after splitting a two-game series with the Bakersfield Condors last weekend. For San Jose, their woes continue with back-to-back losses and eight out of their last nine games.

Colorado (9-7-0-0) drew first blood in the first period. The Eagles sustained pressure in the ‘Cuda zone as Mark Alt kept the puck in and fed a pass over to Erik Condra. Condra skated near the right slot when he threw a shot on net that was tipped in by Sheldon Dries for his seventh goal of the season at the 6:29 mark.

Despite outshooting the Eagles 11-9 and having some good scoring chances late, the ‘Cuda went into the first intermission down by a goal in a penalty-free opening 20 minutes.

“It’s just tough right now,” said ‘Cuda head coach Roy Sommer. “We make a mistake and it’s in (the back of) our net. That’s kind how things are going for us right now.”

Colorado doubled its lead just 32 seconds to start the third period. Nick Henry centered a pass from the left faceoff circle over to Julien Nantel, who was all alone camped out just to the right of the crease. After his inital shot was saved by ‘Cuda goalie Andrew Shortridge, a Quebec native, put away the rebound chance for fourth goal of the season.

San Jose (5-10-0-1) cut the deficit in half on the power play. From the point, Jeremy Roy fed a pass over to Noah Gregor, who skated in and from the left slot wired a wrist shot that beat Eagles goalie Adam Werner, who was screened on the play by Alex True, for his second goal of the season at the 13:32 mark. Maxim Letunov was credited with the secondary assist.

Gregor’s goal sent the Tank into a frenzy of stuffed animals being thrown onto the ice in the annual Teddy Bear Toss Night the ‘Cuda have put on since moving to Silicon Valley from Worcester, Massachusetts five years ago.

“Yeah, it was cool,” said Gregor when asked how it felt to play Santa Claus for one night. “Teddy bear toss games are fun, fun for the fans. It was nice to get the one goal for myself and see the teddies fly (on to the ice).”

Shots were even at 10-10 in the middle frame. One of them Shortridge could have been charged with grand theft when he made a point blank save on Nantel with just over 11 minutes remaining that helped shift the momentum in San Jose’s favor.

San Jose had a golden opportunity to even the game midway through the third period when both Ty Lewis and Kevin Connauton went to the penalty box 63 seconds apart. However, the ‘Cuda sqaundered the 5-on-3 power play as Colorado killed it off and seized back control of the game.

“The bottom line is the five-on-three we don’t score on,” said Sommer. “That was the game right there. That’s kind of (opportunity) what you wait for and (we) didn’t get it done.”

Colorado iced the game with two empty-net goals with under a minute remaining in the game. First, Jacob McDonald fired a long shot from inside his own defensive zone after winning a battle along the boards for his fifth goal at the 19:16 mark. Then, Michael Joly won a race to a loose puck and put the biscuit in the basket for his fifth goal at the 19:31 mark.

Werner stopped 35 of the 36 shots he faced to earn his sixth win of the season. Shortridge made 23 saves on 25 shots in their losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 1/5 on the power play. Colorado was 0/2.

Eagles forward Josh Dickinson left the game with a lower body injury early in the first period.

Fisticuffs! San Jose’s Jacob Middleton and Colorado’s Dan Renouf dropped the gloves in a fight that had two hits, one by Middleton and Renouf hitting the ice after just one punch.

San Jose Sharks forward Barclay Goodrow scored the first ever Teddy Bear Toss goal when he was a member of the ‘Cuda back on November 7th, 2015.

The announced crowd was 3,923.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda conclude their four-game homestand on Saturday, November 23 vs. the Eagles at 1:15 pm at SAP Center.

Sharks’ Six-Game Win Streak Snapped, Oilers Top San Jose 5-2

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Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Matthew Harrington

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks six-game win streak was snapped Tuesday night, and done so in emphatic fashion by the Pacific Division leaders. The Edmonton Oilers came in to the SAP Center and outclassed the Sharks in almost every aspect of the game, rolling to a 5-2 victory and gaining a bit of revenge for a defeat against the Sharks in San Jose last Tuesday.

Mikael Granlund scored his first goal as an Oiler, Connor McDavid scored and racked up two assists and Leon Draisaitl added to his league-leading 44 points with an apple Kevin Labanc and Barclay Goodrow scored for the Sharks, who failed to move into a winning record for the first time all season.

Granlund put the Sharks on their heels early when he scored on a wrister just 3:34 into the first period, and just under eight minutes in Kassian picked up his eighth goal of a year where he has the greatest job in hockey on a line with McDavid and Draisaitl. McDavid Assisted on the play.

Kevin Labanc continued his strong stretch of play, picking up his fourth point over the last two games. He beat Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen 1:24 after Kassian’s marker to pull the Sharks within one. Logan Couture and Evander Kane assisted on the goal.

The Sharks peppered Koskinen in the first, putting 18 pucks on the keeper, but couldn’t crack the Oilers 1B option in net. Add in a Jujhar Khaira goal with 15 seconds left in the period and the Sharks hole to climb out of seemed pretty deep.

They largely weathered the storm of the 2nd until a Oilers powper play with just under three minutes left in the middle stanza. James Neal continued his resurgence, tipping a puck through Martin Jones for a 4-1 Oilers lead with McDavid picking up his 28th assist of the year. McDavid would add his 15th goal of the year 6:34 into the third.

Barclay Goodrow continued his strong season, scoring his 6th goal of the year with 10:17 left in regulation. He’s now one goal away from matching a career-high in seven, a feat he accomplished twice in his career including doing it in 47 games in 2017-18. He’s currently played in 22. While he didn’t make the save here, Koskinen did end the night with 33 denials. Though Martin Jones’ save percentage (.828) and goal total don’t look good for this one, he was hardly at fault for the Oilers offensive outburst.

The Sharks three-game home stand comes to an end, and the real test on if the team has turned a corner awaits. San Jose heads to Vegas to face the Golden Knights Thursday in the Fortress, with Vegas and San Jose jockeying for sixth place in the Pacific.

Sharks Streak at Six, Beat Red Wings 4-3 in Shoot-Out

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Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Sharks won their sixth in a row, defeating the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in a shoot-out Saturday. Sharks goals came from Kevin Labanc (one in regulation and the shoot-out winner), Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and Erik Karlsson. Martin Jones made 25 saves for the win. Detroit goals came from Andreas Athanasiou (2) and Taro Hirose. Jimmy Howard made 16 saves for the Red Wings.

After the game, Sharks captain Logan Couture said: “It’s nice to win. It’s a lot more fun playing hockey right now than it was three weeks ago. So we’re having a good time.”

Couture also talked about the way the team has been winning lately, compared to expectations at the start of the season:

It feels like we’ve been scoring enough goals lately to win. It’s weird, I mean we said at the start of the year we weren’t going to win 5-4, 4-3 games but that’s what we’ve been doing. So if we’re finding ways to score goals right now and that’s why we’re winning, I still think we can be tighter defensively, give up less odd-man rushes. But it’s nice winning.

The win brought the team’s record to even at 10-10-1.

Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer talked about the significance of that: “It’s been a lot of work to scratch back into this race. We’ve got a lot of work left to do. But it’s nice to win that game. I think we would’ve walked out of here with only one point tonight, you know, we would’ve been disappointed.”

Kevin Labanc gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead in the final minute of the first period. Entering the zone with Logan Couture and Evander Kane 3 on 2, he took the shot from the middle of the slot, but Howard stopped it and fell forward to cover it. He didn’t quite have it and it trickled out to the side, where Labanc found it again and lifted it over the prone goaltender. Assists went to Logan Couture and Radim Simek.

At the end of the first, the shots were 9-8 San Jose and the Red Wings had won 56% of the face-offs.

Just 1:11 into the second period, the Sharks extended their lead with a blast from Marc-Edouard Vlasic at the point. His shot hit Howard on the inside of the arm and went in. Assists went to Logan Couture and Kevin Labanc.

Detroit got one back 13 seconds later when Andreas Athanasiou scored his fourth of the season. After helping to thwart the Sharks in the neutral zone, Athanasiou skated into the o-zone and around the Sharks defense to put a backhand shot under Jones and into the net. Assists went to Robby Fabbri and Joe Hicketts.

An impressive push from Detroit followed that goal, but it was halted by a penalty to Anthony Mantha for goaltender interference at 5:41. While it slowed the Red Wings, the power play did nothing else for the Sharks. They did not register any shots with the man advantage. Detroit had their own shotless power play at 8:21 after Melker Karlsson was called for high-sticking.

Detroit did tie it at 11:34 when Taro Hirose scored his first of the season. Brendan Perlini found Hirose in the slot right in front of Jones while the Sharks defense seemed not to see him at all. Hirose had room and time to pick his shot but he did so quickly. Assists went to Perlini and Madison Bowey.

The Sharks retook the lead just under a minute later. After shots from Couture and Labanc in the face-off circles could not get by Howard, Labanc skated down the slot and made a backward pass to Karlsson. Karlsson sent the puck right back to the net and in. A mass of bodies screened Howard from seeing what was coming in time. Assists went to Labanc and Couture.

Detroit had another power play at 16:27 when the Sharks were penalized for too many men on the ice. The Red Wings got two shots, but no more in those two minutes.

Athanasiou forced overtime by scoring his second of the game at 15:46 of the third period. Valteri Filppula and Athanasiou broke fast through the neutral zone and went in two-on-one against Radim Simek. Filppula made a cross-ice pass and Athanasiou took the shot. Assists went to Valtteri Filppula and Robby Fabbri.

After a fast-moving overtime, including a penalty kill for the Sharks, Kevin Labanc was the only shooter to score in the shoot-out. Martin Jones stopped Frans Nielsen, Andreas Athanasiou and Dylan Larkin. Jimmy Howard stopped Logan Couture.

The Sharks next play on Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers at 7:30 PM PT in San Jose. If that sounds familiar, it is because the Sharks played the Oilers last Tuesday as well, also in San Jose.

Gulls use balanced attack, take down the Barracuda 3-1

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Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Diego Gulls scored three unaswered goals and tightened their belts defensively in taking down the San Jose Barracuda 3-1 on Sunday evening at SAP Center.

It is the fourth consecutive loss for San Jose, who have hit a rut offensively this past week. For San Diego, they have won four in a row after going winless in the month of October.

San Diego (4-6-0-0) drew first blood early to open up the game. Jack Kopacka led a 3-on-2 odd man rush where he fed a pass up to Alex Dotsie at center ice. Corey Tropp then gave the puck back to Dostie on a pretty give and go where Dostie skated in all alone on ‘Cuda goalie Andrew Shortridge and snapped a shot top-shelf into the upper right corner for his third goal of the season at the 2:19 mark.

The Gulls doubled their lead toward the end of the opening 20 minutes when Brendan Guhle sent a pass into the ‘Cuda zone that caromed off the right boards where Tropp quickly moved it over to Sam Carrick, who crashed the crease and tipped it past Shortridge for his third goal of the season with 58 seconds left.

San Diego dominated the first period as they outshot San Jose 10-5.

San Diego scored an insurance goal midway through the second period. Alex Broadhurst found a wide-open Justin Kloos at the middle of the ‘Cuda blue line. Kloos skated in and fed a pass to his left over to Blake Pietila, who quickly fired a wrist shot top-shelf into the short side of the net for his second goal of the season at the 11:07 mark.

Joachim Blichfeld spoiled the shutout bid for Gulls goalie Anthony Stolarz near the end of the middle frame. San Jose (4-6-0-1)’s forward stole a pass from Guhle at the blueline and raced down on a breakaway where his initial shot was saved by Stolarz. He was able to collect his own rebound, hesitate and then wired a wrist shot top-shelf past Stolarz for his fourth goal of the season at the 17:54 mark.

San Jose would not get any closer than that. Despite some good pressure put on in the third period as they outshot San Diego 10-6, San Diego’s defense anchored down, with the help of Stolarz, and did not allow another goal.

Stolarz finished with 31 saves on 32 shot to earn his fourth win of the season. Shortridge made 22 saves on 25 shots in the losing effort.

GAMES NOTES: San Jose was 0/4 on the power play. San Diego was 0/3.

San Jose Sharks defenseman Dalton Prout made his debut for the Barracuda while on a rehab assignment. He finished with no goals or assists and a -1.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda travel down to San Diego to take on the Gulls on Wednesday, November 13 at 7:00 pm at Pechanga Arena.

Sharks Hang On In Wild 6-5 Win Over Minnesota

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Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Matthew Harrington

First, the positives for the San Jose Sharks after Thursday night’s game at home against the Minnesota Wild: With a 6-5 win, San Jose now has its second multi-game win streak of the season. The negative; it wasn’t all that convincing.

After two periods of play, the Sharks held a commanding lead, but if not for a miraculous toe-save by Martin Jones on Zach Paries the game would have gone to overtime. Lowly Minnesota scored three unanswered goals to make Sharks fans sweat the third period out. Martin Jones made 21 saves on 26 shots and Logan Couture appears to be shaking off an early season funk with just his second goal of the campaign and a confidence building four-point night. Tomas Hertl had three points and Radim Simek picked up his first goal since returning to the Sharks in their previous game.

Eric Staal had a goal and an assist for the Wild and Luke Kunin had two points. Former Shark Alex Stalock made just eight saves on 12 Sharks goals before being pulled after a four-goal first period.

Couture, in the longest scoring slump of his career, opened the scoring 52 seconds into the game, then Timo Meier made the Sharks lead 2-0 just under six minutes in. Marcus Sorensen notched his third goal of the year and Radim Simek scored on a slap shot, all in the final five minutes of the period to run the score up  4-0 after 20 minutes.

Kunin  would score late in the second at the 15:51 mark, but Tomas Hertl’s sixth goal of the season would seemingly give San Jose breathing room on the power play. The second closed out with a flurry though as Staal and Evander Kane traded power play goals in the final 2+ minutes for the 6-2 Sharks edge.

Brad Hunt’s wrist shot 8:07 into the third cut the Sharks lead in half, then 1:13 later Ryan Donato’s 1st goal of the year made it 6-4. Jason Zucker’s 5th goal of the season with 4:35 left in regulation cut the lead to just one, and a turnover that led to a Zach Parise one-on-zero seemed like it’d tie the game.

A down but not out Jones made the save and his defenders cleared the puck and a mad dash with the extra attacker for Minnesota proved for naught as the Sharks held on for the win. They’ll look to match a season-high win streak of three games when they take the ice Saturday at home against the Nashville Predators.

Sharks Snap Five Game Skid, Beat Hawks 4-2

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Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Sports Radio Service Staff writers 

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks snapped their five-game losing skid Tuesday night, largely dominating the Chicago Blackhawks in a 4-2 win at SAP Center. Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier had a goal and an assist apiece. Patrick Marleau scored in his 800th consecutive regular season game played and Evander Kane potted his team-leading 9th goal short-handed and San Jose limited Chicago to just 21 shots on goal (8 through 40 minutes). Barclay Goodrow had a pair of assist for the Sharks and Brandon Saad and Duncan Keith scored for Chicago.

The Sharks were shut out by the reigning Vezina trophy winner Robin Lehner after firing 14 shots on net in the first, though the defense was stout in only yielding three shots that Martin Jones turned aside handily. Then San Jose got on the board early in the 2nd period. Marleau tipped a Puck past Lehner 1:39 into the middle frame, deflecting a Timo Meier shot in net for his 554th career goal. Joe Thornton also assisted on the Iron man’s marker.

Evander Kane would take advantage of a lax Chicago power play unit after Brenden Dillon fed him the puck. The power forward finished off the play, scoring his team-leading 9th goal 12:05 into the frame.

Tomas Hertl made it 3-0 in the third, taking a Barclay Goodrow pass and wristing it past Lehner 4:39 into the period.

Brandon Saad and Duncan Keith beat Jones within minutes of each other, turning a 3-0 deficit to a one-goal margin with 1:54 in regulation, but Meier found the empty net to ice the game at the 18:34 mark.

Defenseman Radim Simek skated in his first NHL game since suffering a lower body injury March 12th of last season in Winnipeg. He didn’t register a point but made an impact, including a thunderous hit on Kirby Dach in the first period. The Sharks hope he has the same impact he had upon joining the lineup last year. The Sharks went 16-3-2 over his first 21 games of his rookie season. He’ll get another crack when the Sharks host the Minnesota Wild Thursday night at 7:30 PM PST.

Roadrunners bury Barracuda 5-3 with 3rd period outburst

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Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — For the second game in a row the San Jose Barracuda couldn’t hold a third period lead and it cost them dearly as the Tucson Roadrunners used a four-goal outburst to defeat San Jose 5-3 on Sunday afternoon at SAP Center.

It was the most goals San Jose has given up in the third period this season as they have lost two games in a row.

San Jose (4-4-0-1) jumped out to a fast start when Joel Kellman sent a pass over to Thomas Gregoire, whose shot was initially saved by Roadrunners goalie Adin Hill. The rebound jumped out into the middle of the crease where Joachim Blichfeld crashed in and cleaned up the rebound for his third goal of the season just 38 seconds into the game. It was the fastest goal to open a game for the ‘Cuda this season.

The ‘Cuda doubled its lead nine minutes later on the power play when Lean Bergmann bulldozed his way into the Roadrunner zone and had the puck roll over onto the stick of Danil Yurtaykin. The Russian forward then fed a wide open Anti Suomela in the slot and he fired a wrist shot past Hill for his first goal (and first point) of the season at the 9:35 mark.

Tucson (8-3-0-0) cut the lead in the half on the power play late in the second period on what would be the start of four unanswered goals when Robbie Russo sent a pass over to Michael Bunting and he fired it home past ‘Cuda goalie Andrew Shortridge for his second goal of the season at the 17:11 mark.

“We take the penalty late in the second and they score on that, it’s 2-1,” said ‘Cuda head coach Roy Sommer. “We gave life to a team that was lifeless really.”

The Roadrunners dominated the third period with three straight goals. First, Lane Pederson scored his ninth goal of the season while Tucscon was on the power play at the 2:37 mark. Bunting and Jordan Gross received assists.

Then less than two minutes later, former ‘Cuda forward Jon Martin, who signed with Tucscon in the offseason, scored his third goal of the season and first against his old club from Jeremy Gregoire and Nate Schnarr at the 4:28 mark.

Brayden Burke scored Tucson’s third power play goal of the contest at the 11:12 mark of the final period with Hudson Fasching and Kyle Capobianco receiving assists on the goal.

“Unfortunately the game is 60 minutes and we only played 40 of it,” said Sommer.

The ‘Cuda cut the deficit to a one-goal game less than minute later when Radim Simek sent a cross ice pass over to Gregorie at the right point. Gregoire then threw a wrist shot toward the net that went past Hill, who was screened on the play by his own defenseman Cam Dineen, for his first goal of the season at the 12:20 mark. Bergmann was credited with the secondary assist.

Simek has registered points in his two games since the San Jose Sharks reassigned him for his conditioning rehab.

But that was as close as San Jose would get as Tucson’s Gregoire sealed the deal with a short-handed empty-net goal at the 18:46 mark. It was the center’s first goal of the season.

Hill finished 34 saves on 37 shots to earn the victory. Shortridge allowed four goals on 22 shots in suffering the loss.

GAMES NOTES: San Jose was 1/4 on the power play. Tucson finished 3/6.

Bergmann notched his first multi-assist game of his AHL career.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda travel down to Bakersfield to take on the Condors on Saturday, November 9 at 7:00 pm at the Rabobank Arena.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Spanish Broadcast at Hispanic Night in SAP Center

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San Jose Sharks photo of Amaury Pi-Gonzalez and Jesus Zarate.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

For the second season in a row, the San José Sharks broadcasted in Spanish on Hispanic Night with Los Tiburones. Live broadcast on KIQI 1010AM/990AM, 10,000 Watts, 24X7X365 in San Francisco, Oakland, San José, Sacramento, Stockton and the Valley. Also, on SAP (Audio Channel), NBCSCA and social media outlets.

Sharks Win First of Preseason, 4-1, on Four-Goal Third Period

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Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Matthew Harrington

SAN JOSE–The San Jose Sharks finally won in the 2019 preseason, besting the Calgary Flames 4-1 Thursday night at the SAP Center. Dylan Gambrell helped his cause to make the opening night roster by scoring two goals, line mates Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl scored a goal apiece and Brent Burns notched assists on all four goals.

Both teams were scoreless entering the third period, but Kane opened the flood gates by beating Flames netminder Artyom Zagidulin 3:17 into the third. San Jose then scored three goals in a span of 2:58. Tomas Hertl tipped a Burns blast past Zagidulin at the 10:59 mark then Gambrell beat Zagidulin twice for a 4-0 lead.

Gambrell opened the game on the second line with Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl, but couldn’t take advantage of his opportunities and found himself on the potential fourth line with Melker Karlsson and Goodrow. His odds of factoring into the opening night roster, be it as a skater or a scratch were dwindling, especially with Lukas Radil excelling with Kane and Hertl throughout the preseason. The pressure coach Peter DeBoer has put on the young Gambrell paid off in spades with his performance down the stretch, with production from the fourth line being a necessity this year as the Sharks try to replace Joe Pavelski’s production.

One of the many Sharks assured a spot in the lineup October 2nd, Brent Burns still turned in a stellar performance, collecting four assists in a period. The feat would match a franchise record were the game to have counted.

The Sharks got solid goaltending from Martin Jones with the incumbent starter making 24 saves on 25 shots. The lone goal came with 4:02 left in regulation after Justin Kirkland punched home a rebound to cut the lead to 4-1. The same could not be said of Calgary’s goalie Zagidulin. The 24-year-old former KHLer gave up four goals on 12 shots, entering the game to start the third period. Cam Talbot was perfect to open the game, turning aside 24 Sharks shots to enter third tied 0-0.

Up next for the Sharks are some roster decisions and a match-up with the same team the Sharks will face twice in the season’s first two games. San Jose will face the Vegas Golden Knights Monday on the road before opening the season at T-Mobile Arena on October 2nd.

Avalanche Tie Series with 4-3 Win Over Sharks

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Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE — The Colorado Avalanche edged the San Jose Sharks in Game 2 with a 4-3 win at SAP Center Sunday, tying the second round playoff series at one apiece. Avs’ goals came from Gabriel Landeskog, Tyson Barrie, Matt Nieto and Nathan MacKinnon. Sharks’ goals came from Evander Kane and Brent Burns (2). Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves for Colorado, while Martin Jones made 28 saves on 31 shots for San Jose.

After the game, Sharks forward Evander Kane said: “I thought we did a good job early on, we just let them hang around too long.”

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson elaborated on the same theme:

I think that we played well, we did a lot of good things out there. Just couldn’t find a way to score goals and got a little frustrated as the game went along and started doing our own thing a little too much. We know that doesn’t work in here and you know we should have learned by now but we didn’t. They capitalized on the chances they got and made us play from behind.

Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer pointed to the Sharks’ net-front presence as an issue: “I thought it was a pretty even game. I thought we didn’t get to their net enough. We had some real good looks where he made a couple big saves but I thought we could have made it a little tougher on him traffic-wise on our point shots. And I thought we could have done a better job in front of Jonesy, you know, on their point shots.”

Evander Kane started the scoring at 7:57 of the first. Kane was in front of the net and got behind Cale Makar as a blueline shot from Brent Burns came in. With a couple of strong moves, he fended off Makar and put the puck past Grubauer. Assists went to Brent Burns and Tomas Hertl. It was Kane’s second of the playoffs.

Colorado tied it up at 8:21. Tyson Barrie took a shot from the blue line into traffic and it went off of Gabriel Landeskog right on the edge of the blue paint. It was Landeskog’s second of the playoffs. Assists went to Barrie and Nathan MacKinnon.

The Avalanche got a lead on a goal from Tyson Barrie at 16:31. The play could have easily been called an icing, as Marc-Edouard Vlasic was the first to the hash marks, but the officials did not call it and play continued on.

After the game, Vlasic said “I’ll take the high road and wait for the League’s apology tomorrow.”

Barrie’s shot came from above the face-off circle when the puck emerged from a battle by the other side of the net. Jones was coming across from that and could not stop Barrie’s shot. Assists went to Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen.

Colorado’s lead expanded at 10:10 of the third. Martin Jones looked like he thought he had the puck frozen under him but it was slowly moving behind him. Brenden Dillon got his stick in there to push it away from the goal line but he hit it a little too hard and it bounced off of Jones back into the net. The goal went to Matt Nieto, his third of the playoffs. Assists went to Matt Calvert and Barrie.

The Sharks had some good luck in the form of Alexander Kerfoot’s broken skate, which left Brent Burns free to move and shoot without Kerfoot getting in his way. Burns did just that and brought the Sharks within one at 15:26. Assists went to Erik Karlsson and Marcus Sorensen.

That Sharks momentum was shattered when, moments later, Timo Meier allowed his stick to get into Nathan MacKinnon’s skate and that put the Avalanche on a power play. The Sharks killed off the penalty, but had little time to get the tying goal. With just over a minute to go, they pulled their goaltender for the extra skater. Nathan MacKinnon got control of the puck and put it in the empty net at 18:58. Assists went to Calvert and Philipp Grubauer.

The Sharks did get that third goal, in a 17-second power play at the end of the game. Four skaters battled for puck in the slot, but Tomas Hertl got to it first and tapped it ahead to Burns, who was moving through the outside of the face-off circle. He had a clear shot and he took it. Assists went to Hertl and Kane. That left the Sharks 10 more seconds to tie it with a fourth but they couldn’t get that done.

Melker Karlsson left the game late in the third period after being crushed against the glass by Derick Brassard.

Game 3 will be Tuesday at the Pepsi Center in Denver at 7:00 PM PT.