Eurolanche

Sharks Too Much For Avalanche

Patrick Marleau scored two goals for the fourth straight game to become just the second player in NHL history to open a season with four straight multi-goal games. He joined Cy Denneny of the 1917-18 Ottawa Senators in that elite club.

Marleau scored both goals on the power play in the first period. In the second, Sharks captain Joe Thornton added a power-play goal and rookie Matt Irwin scored the first goal of his NHL career. San Jose goaltender Thomas Greiss, making his first start of the season in place of Antti Niemi, stopped 24 shots to earn his first career shutout in his 39th NHL game. He improved to 3-0-0 lifetime against Colorado.

The Avalanche (2-2-0) lost their ninth straight regular-season contest at HP Pavilion, where they haven't won since Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals in 2010. Colorado's last regular-season victory in San Jose was on Feb. 6, 2008.

The Sharks didn't log their first shot until 12:17 of the first period, but Marleau scored twice before the first intermission, giving them a 2-0 lead. Both of Marleau's goals came after Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart delivered a huge hit on Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. As Landeskog left the ice, Avalanche defenseman Ryan O'Byrne confronted Stuart, igniting a fight.

O'Byrne was given an instigating penalty, one of his earned 19 penalty minutes on the play, including a 10-minute misconduct. Landeskog, who appeared to take a shoulder to the head, went to the dressing room and missed the rest of the first period before returning for the second.

Marleau gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 16:09 of the first, sending a rebound past Semyon Varlamov from close range. Joe Pavelski and Dan Boyle earned the assists. Seventy-eight seconds later, Marleau struck again. This time he took a cross-ice pass just right of the crease from Thornton and put the puck into the net.

The Sharks made it 3-0 just 2:32 into the second period with another power-play goal, this one by Thornton. After Marleau nearly redirected a shot past Varlamov, Ryane Clowe got his stick on the puck before Thornton knocked it home from just to the right of the crease.

Irwin put the Sharks ahead 4-0 at 17:05 of the second stanza, taking a pass from Martin Havlat and ripping a slap shot from above the left circle past Varlamov. Varlamov, who was coming off a 4-0 shutout of Columbus on Thursday, was replaced at the start of the third period by Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Varlamov made 22 saves in the game while Giguere stopped all 17 shots he faced.

Entering the game, the Sharks' power play ranked No. 3 in the NHL at 38.9 percent with seven goals in 18 attempts. Colorado's penalty kill ranked fourth in the league at 89.5 percent. The Avalanche had killed 17 of 19 penalties before facing the Sharks, who went 3-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

-NHL.com-