Monday, March 1, 2021 10:30 PM (ET)

Sharks storm past Avalanche with six straight goals

Field Level Media
Mar 2, 2021

Evander Kane produced a three-point night, and the San Jose Sharks, trailing by two goals early in the second period, scored six consecutive goals to defeat the visiting Colorado Avalanche 6-2 on Monday.

Radim Simek, Kevin Labanc, Rudolfs Balcers, Erik Karlsson and John Leonard all found the back of the net for San Jose before Kane added an empty-net tally. Timo Meier contributed to the offense with three assists, Kane had two assists and Balcers had one assist. Martin Jones made 33 saves to improve to 2-3-1 in his past six starts.

Samuel Girard and Gabriel Landeskog notched Colorado's goals, and Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves in the loss.

Girard opened up scoring with 1:28 left in the first period. Just as Colorado's second power-play opportunity of the period expired, the Colorado blueliner skated in close and wristed the puck past Jones to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead.

The Sharks attempted to even things up on the following shift when Girard turned the puck over and Patrick Marleau had a breakaway, but Grubauer kept the veteran center from converting.

Landeskog doubled the lead on a power play at 4:21 of the second period. He scooped up MacKinnon's rebound and backhanded it over Jones' shoulder to give Colorado a 2-0 lead.

The margin lasted less than two minutes, though, as Simek beat Grubauer five-hole at 6:31. With 3:12 left in the middle frame, Kane set up Labanc for an up-close tap-in that eluded Grubauer and tied the game 2-2.

Balcers buried the go-ahead goal at 4:18 of the third period. He gave the puck a backhanded shovel past Grubauer's pad, with a little help from Meier tying up Nazem Kadri's stick in front of Colorado's net.

With San Jose on the power play just a couple minutes later, Karlsson's slap shot from the blue line buzzed through traffic to increase the lead to 4-2 at 7:53.

Leonard boosted the margin when he picked up the puck on a breakaway and beat Grubauer up close for a 5-2 edge at 10:11.

Grubauer was pulled with 2:12 left in regulation as the teams skated four-on-four with Kadri and Ryan Donato in the penalty box for roughing, opening up the door for Kane to bury the empty-net goal with 1:07 to go.

--Field Level Media

Covers 25 Years Logo Established in 1995,
Covers is the world
leader in sports
betting information.
Covers is verified safe by: Evalon Logo GPWA Logo GDPR Logo GeoTrust Logo Evalon Logo