Rapid Recap: Avalanche 4, Sharks 3

The Colorado Avalanche swept the home back-to-back set against the San Jose Sharks by winning 4-3 on Saturday night at Ball Arena.
It was Colorado's third-straight sweep of a back-to-back this season, matching a franchise record. The Avs won 3-0 on Friday night against the Sharks.
Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each had a goal and an assist, and Conor Timmins recorded two helpers for his first career multi-point outing. Andre Burakovsky and Patrik Nemeth also tallied, while J.T. Compher, Cale Makar and Devon Toews contributed assists.

The Sharks opened the scoring early in the second period, but the Avalanche notched three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead in the third period. San Jose added two markers in the final frame, but the Avs held on for the victory to extend their home point streak to 15 games (14-0-1).
Avalanche goalie Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves in his first home start in Denver.
It was the second of four-straight meetings between the teams.

THE GOALS

1st Period
No Scoring
2nd Period
4:25 SJS (0-1) - PPG, Alexander Barabanov scored after the puck came free to him in the left circle.
13:08 COL (1-1) - Conor Timmins threw the puck toward the goal and Nathan MacKinnon redirected it into the net from the right crease during 4-on-4 play.
16:06 COL (2-1) - Off a faceoff win, Andre Burakovsky tallied with an outside shot through traffic.
3rd Period
9:05 COL (3-1) - Patrik Nemeth took a pass from Cale Makar and scored with a one-time shot from the left point that went top shelf.
9:55 SJS (3-2) - SHG, Logan Couture cleaned up the puck for a short-handed goal after a rebound came free from Evander Kane's breakaway chance.
15:34 COL (4-2) - Mikko Rantanen redirected in Devon Toews' shot from the top of the left circle.
17:47 SJS (4-3) - With the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker, Tomas Hertl scored on a redirection in front.
Final: Avalanche - 4 | Sharks - 3

3 STARS

Selected by Colorado Hockey Coach of the Game: Chris Lockrem (Boulder Hockey Club)

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 0 for 4
San Jose: 1 for 4

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Devan Dubnyk made 22-of-25 saves to earn the home victory at Ball Arena.
San Jose: Josef Korenar stopped 39 of the 43 shots he faced.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Colorado is now 14-0-1 in its last 15 games at Ball Arena, tied for the second-longest home point streak in franchise history (March 1-May 3, 1995, 13-0-2).

NOTEBOOK

The Avs wrapped up their eighth back-to-back of the season with the team now 7-1-0 in the first game and is now 5-0-3 in the second. It was the third-straight sweep of a back-to-back, matching a franchise record... Patrik Nemeth scored his first goal of the season with the Avalanche… Conor Timmins (two assists) recorded his first-ever multi-point outing and now has three assists in his NHL career... Pierre-Edouard Bellemare played in his 500th career NHL game, becoming the second French player to reach the mark... The Avalanche franchise played its second ever regular-season game in the month of May, as the Quebec Nordiques finished the shortened 1994-95 campaign at home with a win vs. Hartford on May 3, 1995... Valeri Nichushkin scored at 7:14 of the second period but it was waved off as the San Jose goaltender's mask came off before, causing an immediate stoppage of play. The Avalanche held the Sharks to four shots on goal in the second period... The Avalanche used a coach's challenge for goaltender interference on Evander Kane's goal at 9:55 of the third period, but the call on the ice was upheld. It was the first lost coach's challenge of the season for the Avs (3-for-4)… Colorado improved to 6-1-2 on Saturdays this season… The Avalanche has now won three straight games against San Jose and owns a 5-1-0 record and finished with a 4-0-0 mark at home in the season series.

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

Hey, I know you.

ROSTER REPORT

Goaltender Devan Dubnyk made his first start at Ball Arena as a member of the Avalanche. It was also his first game against his former team, as he started the season in San Jose before being acquired in a trade on April 10. Dan Renouf was recalled from the AHL Colorado Eagles earlier in the day and made up a defensive pairing with Kyle Burroughs, who was moved up from the team's taxi squad. Cale Makar and Devon Toews came together to form another defensive pairing, while the duo of Patrik Nemeth and Conor Timmins remained the same at the start of the game. Colorado also recalled goaltenders Hunter Miska and Adam Werner on Saturday and reassigned Jonas Johansson, who started the Eagles contest that night versus the Ontario Reign in Loveland.

INJURY UPDATE

Ryan Graves (upper body) missed his first game of the year with an injury, while Samuel Girard was scratched for the second time this season due to an undisclosed ailment. Both defensemen got hurt in Friday's game. Brandon Saad missed his fourth straight game with a lower-body injury and is expected to miss two-to-four weeks. Bowen Byram (upper body), Matt Calvert (upper body), Jacob MacDonald (lower body), Logan O'Connor (lower body) are all week-to-week with injuries. Pavel Francouz (lower body) is out for the remainder of the season, and Erik Johnson (upper body) could return later in the playoffs.

UP NEXT

The Avalanche and Sharks' four-game set now moves to San Jose for the next two contests. The teams face-off again on Monday and Wednesday at SAP Center in the final meetings of the regular season.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on the start of the game
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
95 Andre Burakovsky - 17 Tyson Jost - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
34 Carl Soderberg - 91 Nazem Kadri - 72 Joonas Donskoi
44 Kiefer Sherwood - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 37 J.T. Compher
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
24 Patrik Nemeth - 22 Conor Timmins
2 Dan Renouf - 88 Kyle Burroughs
Goaltenders
40 Devan Dubnyk
31 Philipp Grubauer