Rapid Recap: Avalanche 4, Sharks 0

Goaltender Philipp Grubauer posted his first shutout of the season as he stopped all 27 shots he faced in the Colorado Avalanche's 4-0 win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night at Pepsi Center.
It was Grubauer's 10th shutout of his career and fourth with the Avalanche.
Colorado led 2-0 after the first period with Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar scoring in the first and last minutes of the opening stanza. Nichushkin tallied on a strong drive to the net 45 seconds after puck drop, and Makar tallied off a faceoff win with three seconds left before the intermission.

The Avs doubled their lead in the middle frame as Ryan Graves and Matt Calvert found the back of the net. Calvert's marker came on a breakaway while the team was shorthanded, his third of the season with the man disadvantage.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Andre Burakovsky, Nazem Kadri and Vladislav Kamenev had assists in the game for Colorado.
The Avalanche outshot the Sharks 38-27.
Statistics
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Photo Gallery
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Highlights
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Notes & Quotes
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Video: Coach Bednar Postgame

THE GOALS

1st Period
0:45 COL (1-0) - After chasing the puck into the Sharks' zone, Valeri Nichushkin cut sharply toward the net from the corner and deposited the puck five-hole on goalie Martin Jones.
19:57 COL (2-0) - Off a faceoff win, Cale Makar threw the puck on net and beat Martin Jones far-side while screened.
2nd Period
9:59 COL (3-0) - Ryan Graves scored on a slap shot from the blue line immediately after a faceoff win by Vladislav Kamenev.
12:42 COL (4-0) - SHG, Matt Calvert took a loose puck in the neutral zone and scored on a breakaway before colliding with the Sharks goaltender.
3rd Period
No Scoring
Final: Avalanche - 4 | Sharks - 0

3 STARS

Selected by Colorado Hockey Coach of the Game: Sabrina Becker (Arapahoe Warriors)

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 0 for 3
San Jose: 0 for 2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Philipp Grubauer recorded his first shutout of the season by stopping all 27 shots he faced
San Jose: Martin Jones made 34-of-38 saves

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Short But So Sweet: Matt Calvert scored his third short-handed goal of the season, the most on the team and tied for the most in the NHL. His three shorties tie a personal high for a campaign set in 2016-17 with Columbus and gives him nine for his career.
Calvert now has 199 career points (95 goals, 104 assists).

NOTEBOOK

Cale Makar scored his 10th of the season, tying the franchise record for goals by a rookie defenseman with John-Michael Liles (2003-04). Makar is also tied with Liles for second place on the all-time points list for a first-year blueliner (34)... Pierre-Edouard Bellemare had an assist and now has 17 points on the season, setting a new career high. His helper also gives him 10 on the campaign, tying his previous personal best set in 2017-18… Andre Burakovsky had an assist and is now one away from 100 in his NHL career... J.T. Compher played in his 200th career NHL game... Colorado remains unbeaten during its season-long, five-game homestand at Pepsi Center, improving to 1-0-2 after three contests... The Avs and Sharks were playing for the first time since their Round 2 matchup in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The teams will play two more times this season, March 8 at San Jose and March 17 in Denver.

QUOTABLE

Goaltender Philipp Grubauer on the shutout: "For sure, it feels good. I think everybody can be proud of themselves, how they played [tonight]. As a team, everybody did the right stuff, so we got to build on that. We built on that since the Pittsburgh game. First period was unbelievable, last game was really good and this game was the most complete I've seen, so we got to make sure we get consistency in that and move on."

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

Celly with the boys

ROSTER REPORT

J.T. Compher and Matt Nieto switched lines, as Compher joined a unit with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Matt Calvert while Nieto played on a trio with Tyson Jost and Vladislav Kamenev… Goaltender Philipp Grubauer made his second straight start in net… Mark Barberio was a healthy scratch.

INJURY UPDATE

Joonas Donskoi was a non-contact participant in the optional morning skate, and head coach Jared Bednar said he could return to the lineup in the team's next game…. Colin Wilson (lower body) is out indefinitely after having surgery.

UP NEXT

Colorado's homestand continues on Saturday when it hosts the St. Louis Blues in an afternoon affair. It will be the fourth of five matchups this season between the division rivals and the first day game at Pepsi Center in 2019-20.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on the start of the game
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsy
11 Matt Calvert - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 37 J.T. Compher
83 Matt Nieto - 17 Tyson Jost - 81 Vladislav Kamenev
Defensemen
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
16 Nikita Zadorov - 28 Ian Cole
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
39 Pavel Francouz