Eurolanche

Sharks rally to beat Avs 5-4

Trailing 4-2 in the third period, the Sharks scored three straight goals in a span of 4:29 and stunned the Colorado Avalanche 5-4. Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture scored during their third-period surge, with Couture's goal at 11:29 breaking a 4-4 tie. Ryane Clowe and Michal Handzus also scored for the Sharks, who snapped a three-game losing streak and won for just third time in their past 10 games.

Paul Stastny scored two goals for Colorado, which beat the Sharks 4-3 in a shootout Tuesday night at Denver. Ryan O’Reilly and Daniel Winnik also scored for Colorado, which has dropped nine in a row away from the Pepsi Center.

Burns sliced Colorado’s lead to 4-3 with a goal at 7:00 of the third. Martin Havlat took the puck from Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda along the right boards and fed Burns with a pass in the slot. Goalie Semyon Varlamov stopped his first shot, but Burns beat got the rebound and scored on his second try.

Pavelski tied it 4-4 at 8:29, planting himself in front of the Colorado net and jamming a rebound past Varlamov. From behind the net, Joe Thornton passed the puck in front to Jason Demers, who fired a shot. Varlamov stopped that one, but not Pavelski’s.

Exactly three minutes later, the Sharks struck again, taking the lead on Couture’s tip of Patrick Marleau’s blast through traffic from the left circle.

Stastny had missed three straight games with a torso injury before returning Tuesday night against San Jose. He didn’t have a point that night, but he had his first multi-goal game of the season Thursday and a season-high three points.

After trailing 2-1 at the first intermission, San Jose knotted the score just 1:12 into the second when Handzus took Havlat's pass from behind the net and beat Varlamov.

Colorado answered with two straight goals and took a 4-2 lead into the third period. Stastny ripped a shot from in front of the net past Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi at 3:01, putting the Avalanche up 3-2.

Midway through the period, Winnik and Clowe had a long, exhausting fight, but Winnik still had enough energy to score at 18:21, giving the Avs a two-goal lead. Forward David Van Der Gulik, who was called up Wednesday from Lake Erie of the AHL along with forward Evan Brophey, dug the puck out along the left boards and sent it to Stastny behind the net. Skating toward the left wall, Stastny zipped a pass in front to a wide-open Winnik, who scored easily.

Colorado came into the game with a power play ranked No. 1 on the road and No. 3 overall. The Sharks’ penalty kill ranked last at home and 29th overall.

Sometimes the numbers don’t lie.

The Avalanche built a 2-1 first-period lead, getting goals from Stastny and O’Reilly and going 2-for-2 on the power play.

San Jose struck first on a goal by Clowe at 2:30 of the first. Varlamov tried to pass the puck to Ryan O’Byrne in the left circle, but Couture cut in front and fired a quick shot. Varlamov stopped that one, but Clowe crashed the net and knocked home the rebound.

But with Marleau in the penalty box for holding, Stastny tied it  with a power-play goal at 5:51. Stastny won a faceoff in the left circle and headed toward the crease, where he deflected Erik Johnson’s long-range rocket past Niemi.

Colorado took a 2-1 lead with 31 seconds left in the period on O’Reilly’s power-play goal with Burns in the box for high-sticking T.J. Galiardi. Stefan Elliott sent a blast from the high slot toward the net that Niemi blocked but couldn’t control. O’Reilly, stationed just right of the crease, ripped home the rebound.

-by Eric Gilmore for NHL.com-