SAN JOSE
– Since the Colorado Avalanche opened the season with a 5-2 home
win over the San Jose Sharks, the wins have kept on coming for the
2008-9 cellar-dwellers of the Western Conference.
SAN JOSE – Since the Colorado Avalanche opened the season with a 5-2 home win over the San Jose Sharks, the wins have kept on coming for the 2008-9 cellar-dwellers of the Western Conference.
Riding the exceptional goaltending of 28-year-old Craig Anderson, the Avalanche brought a 10-1-2 record into Friday’s rematch with the Sharks at sold-out HP Pavilion. The hot start found Colorado atop the conference (22 points), five better than San Jose.
Ryane Clowe’s first goal since March 5, 2009 came with 5.9 seconds left in the second period, helping the Sharks (9-4-1) to a 3-1 win over Colorado in front of 17,562 fans.
San Jose has little time to bask in its four-game winning streak. The Sharks open a three-game roadtrip Sunday afternoon in Carolina against the Hurricanes. San Jose returns to HP Pavilion Saturday to face the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Clowe gave the fans an indication that he was about to snap a 13-game goal-less 2009-10 when his backhander in the sixth round of the shoot-out earned San Jose a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings Wednesday.
The Sharks spent all but a few seconds of the second period’s final three minutes boxed in their own end. A penalty by Marc-Edouard Vlasic left San Jose down one skater at the 16:56 mark. Even after the penalty was killed, Colorado was able to keep the puck in San Jose’s end for the next 40 seconds.
Once the Sharks were able to clear the zone, an efficient rush up-ice ended with the puck jammed behind Anderson from the near left flank by a charging Clowe.
Rob Blake keyed the scoring play when a whipped a hard shot from the bottom of the right circle that Anderson blocked. The short rebound allowed Patrick Marleau to cruise into the low slot and snap a shot toward the center of the net. Anderson’s right-pad save sent the puck toward the right circle, an opportunity for an unmarked Clowe to direct it home past an off-balance Anderson.
San Jose posted a 12-5 edge in shots on net in the first period, then upped the pressure in the second period with a 20-8 advantage.
Anderson’s quick right pad turned back a 2-on-1 San Jose rush 1:12 into the third period. Marleau accepted Manny Malhotra’s cross-ice pass and directed a hard shot from 20 feet out toward the left side of the goal that Anderson was able to deflect away with his pad.
Danny Heatley was five feet away from the left post when he jammed home Jason Demers’ feed at 3:59 of the third for a 2-0 Sharks cushion.
Vlasic began the scoring play when he was able to keep the puck in the Colorado zone and whipped the puck along the boards behind the Avalanche net. Clowe, at the outside edge of the right circle, directed the puck to Demers at the right point. The rookie defenseman one-timed a pass to an open Heatley behind defenseman Kyle Quincey for the uncontested goal, Heatley’s ninth of the season.
Colorado cut the deficit in half 9:34 into the third period. Matt Duchene, the third player taken in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, sent a hard shot from the high slot that goalie Evgeni Nabokov stopped. The long rebound in the slot was pounced on by Duchene for the follow-up shot inside the right post.
That one-goal lead lasted only 30 seconds. Jamie McGinn, behind the Colorado defense as an Avalanche penalty-kill ended, received Marleau’s long pass from Marleau, then beat Anderson with a wrist shot from the left circle dot for the 3-1 San Jose lead.
San Jose finished with 46 shots on goal, the first time reaching the 40-shot mark since firing 40 at Anderson in the season opener.
