"He's [Bernier] played well the last two times we played them, but there's things you can do better," Sharks forward Joe Pavelski said. "You get that many shots, maybe not get enough second chance rebounds. You just have to be better.
"As a road trip, we probably deserved to be better than what we were. Right around that .500 mark, which keeps you in it, but you don't really gain any ground. Now we've got to go to work the rest of the way."
Playing without their top two scorers, injured forwards Nathan MacKinnon (upper body) and Mikko Rantanen (lower body), who was a late scratch, the Avalanche got production from the Jost-Compher-Nail Yakupov line (two goals, three assists).
"They're getting put in a spot where they're getting more opportunity," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "All their minutes have gone up since MacKinnon's gone out of the lineup. We put them together because they're the guys we want to see eat up some of those minutes and try to find a way to produce offensively. Tonight, they answered the bell."
Bourque scored at 2:31 of the second period to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead. Jost passed to Compher after forcing a turnover by Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon, and Compher fed Bourque in the left slot for his third goal.
Jost extended the lead to 2-0 at 4:45 with his first goal in 10 games. Yakupov received a long pass from defenseman Samuel Girard and fed Jost, who split two Sharks defensemen and shot short side by Martin's glove.
"I've been due for this last month or so," Jost said. "I haven't seen the back of the net, so I've been pretty frustrated, but I stuck with it and tried to stay positive. I knew it was going to come sooner or later. [Yakupov] made a great play to me to find me with speed. It felt nice when that hit the back of the net."
Ward scored his first goal in 30 games to cut it to 2-1 at 13:29. Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic took a shot from the left point and the puck deflected off Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, landing by Ward, who shot past Bernier from just outside the crease.
Compher scored into an empty net with 3.6 seconds remaining to make it 3-1.
"We've had some success at home, but we have to get that success on the road if we want to be a good team and to make the playoffs," Bernier said. "It's going to be a tough race until the end, but I think we're confident as a group that if we play our game, we have a really good chance."
