Five Sharks score in win against Avs
The official game recap San Jose Sharks vs Colorado Avalanche.The San Jose Sharks gave their Stanley Cup Playoff hopes a boost with a 5-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche at SAP Center on Wednesday.
The Sharks (38-30-9) moved within five points of the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Sharks, who have five games remaining, moved past the Dallas Stars but are still chasing the Los Angeles Kings.
San Jose trails the Calgary Flames by six points for third place in the Pacific Division. The Sharks won for the third time in their past four games.
The Sharks delivered a blow to Colorado's fading playoff chances. The Avalanche (35-29-12) have 82 points and remained eight behind Winnipeg with five games remaining.
Scott Hannan, Chris Tierney, Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture and John Scott scored for San Jose. Alex Stalock made 19 saves in his third straight start.
Matt Duchene scored for Colorado.
The Sharks took a 1-0 lead at 16:35 of the second period on Hannan's second goal of the season. He redirected Brent Burns' slap shot past Avalanche goalie Reto Berra from the low slot. The goal was Hannan's first since Feb. 2 against the Edmonton Oilers.
Burns extended his assist streak to five games.
Tierney increased San Jose's lead to 2-0 at 8:01, knocking a rebound past Berra from close range. Berra made back-to-back saves against Matt Nieto and Taylor Fedun, but he couldn't control the rebounds and Tierney was able to convert.
Duchene cut San Jose's lead to 2-1 via the power play at 8:54, his 20th goal of the season. But Marleau answered at 10:12, scoring his 18th and 455th in the NHL, moving him into a tie for 55th on the all-time list.
Couture and Scott scored empty-net goals with 4:05 and 3:22 left, respectively.
Hannan left the game with 11:34 remaining after being hit in the face with the puck when Burns tried to clear it from behind San Jose's net. Hannan did not return to the game.
-- by Eric Gilmore for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
02/04/2015 - 07:30
