Lehkonen scores twice, Avalanche recover to defeat Sharks

DENVER -- Artturi Lehkonen scored twice, and Josh Manson scored the go-ahead goal at 12:44 of the third period for the Colorado Avalanche, who recovered from blowing a two-goal lead for a 4-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Valeri Nichushkin had three assists, and Brock Nelson scored for the Avalanche (37-9-9), who are 3-3-0 in their past six games. Nathan MacKinnon had two assists, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves.

“I loved our first two periods. Obviously, we had a dip at the start of the third, but really it was one lucky play,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We haven't been playing fantastic hockey. We've been grinding and fighting like mental fatigue, just fatigue, physical, in general, for some time. So I think the break’s coming at a good time, but we also have a couple of guys that are still out with injury that I think we could get back, obviously, after the break, and hopefully no one gets hurt in the Olympics, and we can hit the ground running.”

Timothy Liljegren and Philipp Kurashev scored for the Sharks (27-24-4), who have lost four straight (0-3-1). Yaroslav Askarov made 38 saves.

“We grip it, and we play in fear, in a sense. I thought we loosened up in the third period, and we got going and we started skating, and we played freer,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “The third period, we kind of got back to what we've done majority of the year. We get on teams with our skating, and didn't quit. So I give the group a lot of credit to getting back into it in the third.”

Manson gave Colorado a 3-2 lead while the teams skated 4-on-4 when he finished a pass from Nichushkin with a one-timer from between the circles past Askarov's glove.

“It was kind of middle of the net. It's just a screen,” Manson said of the shot. “It was kind of one of those hit-and-hope’s. That's kind of been my career.”

Lehkonen opened the scoring at 1:05 of the second period during a goal-mouth scramble. Askarov made the initial save on Lehkonen’s backhand shot, but Lehkonen kicked the loose puck into the crease before eventually knocking it over the goal line. The goal was confirmed after a video review.

“Pretty much just trying to keep the puck alive. He [Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov] had a good hold of my stick. So then he shot it off my leg and it bounced in,” Lehkonen said. “It was a big win for us, and it was a good to go into break like that.”

Lehkonen scored his second at 15:47 with a snap shot from the edge of the right face-off circle over Askarov's blocker. MacKinnon took a pass from Nichushkin while cutting across the slot, curled up into the left circle, and fed a cross-ice pass to Lehkonen for the goal.

MacKinnon's assist was the 700th of his career. He’s the 63rd player in NHL history, the first from the 2013 NHL Draft, and the second in Avalanche/Nordiques history to reach 700 assists.

“I think that this could end at any moment, so I'm not thinking about any milestones,” MacKinnon said. “Goals are kind of tough to come by right now. So that's what happens though. You're not going to score five tonight. Maybe two. Yeah, obviously, you want to produce every night, but it's tough, and it's a hard League.”

Liljegren cut the deficit to 2-1 just 43 seconds into the third period when his one-timer deflected off the stick of Avalanche forward Parker Kelly in the right circle and bounced off the ice and in. It was Liljegren's first goal of the season.

“I think the message was pretty clear, 'Let's just go play and stop worrying about mistakes,'" Warsofsky said. "And we're a good hockey team. We got to get our confidence back. And, obviously, get a couple goals, and that helps. We got going and, unfortunately, those are the ones you'd like to get a point in.”

Kurashev tied it 2-2 at 3:34. He knocked the puck away from Colorado defenseman Samuel Girard at the San Jose blue line, skated down the left side on a 2-on-1 and beat Blackwood with a wrist shot to the short side.

“I think first two [periods] weren’t that good. I think we weren't playing with too much confidence,” Kurashev said. “So I think going into the third, we just wanted to go and play our game and play with confidence. And, yeah, I think it was, for sure, our best period, but obviously not enough.”

Nelson scored an empty-net goal at 18:43 for the 4-2 final.

Forward Kiefer Sherwood had one shot on goal in 17:39 of ice time in his Sharks debut. He was acquired in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 19 and had been out since Jan. 10 because of an undisclosed injury.

NOTES: MacKinnon (925 games) became the third-fastest active player to record 700 career assists, behind only Connor McDavid (699 games) and Sidney Crosby (856 games). He also became the ninth active player to record 700 career assists. … MacKinnon recorded his 170th career multiassist game and moved within three of tying Peter Stastny (173) for the second-most in franchise history, behind Joe Sakic (232). … Makar played his 450th game and assisted on the opening goal. His 354 career assists through 450 games are the fourth-most in NHL history by a defenseman, behind Bobby Orr (415), Paul Coffey (381) and Quinn Hughes (369).