Avalanche shut out Sharks, earn split

Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves for the Colorado Avalanche in a 4-0 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center in San Jose on Wednesday.

"It's about the team and helping the team win," said Grubauer, who has three shutouts this season, including two against the Sharks, and 14 in the NHL. "I think that was really the main thing for us. It was really good. I feel great."
Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon left at 8:08 of the third period after Joachim Blichfeld hit his head with his shoulder as he was skating to the bench. Blichfeld was assessed a match penalty on the play.
"I saw him coming off the ice, he was in the hallway and he seems to be doing good," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said of MacKinnon. "I think we got lucky on it. Hopefully he's feeling good and everything tomorrow, but as of right now he seems to be fine."
Sharks defenseman Brent Burns said Blichfeld, who was making his season debut after being recalled from San Jose of the American Hockey League, wasn't trying to hurt MacKinnon.
"Hopefully the NHL takes a good look at it," Burns said. "If he doesn't hit him, then it's 'He's not finishing his checks.' I know Blichfeld isn't trying to hurt anyone."
Mikko Rantanen had two goals and two assists, and Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and three assists for the Avalanche (12-7-1), who split the two-game set after losing 6-2 here Monday.
"Great response," Rantanen said. "We had a meeting (Wednesday morning) and everybody understood the situation and everybody played well. I felt really good, my legs felt good. Obviously, the guys around me helped me a lot."
Martin Jones made 34 saves for the Sharks (8-10-2), who have lost three of their past four.
"We want to get over that .500 mark," San Jose defenseman Mario Ferraro said. "We have to stack up some wins, but we don't want to get frustrated with each other. With these [two-game sets] it's tougher to win."
Rantanen gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 14:24 of the second period, taking a pass from MacKinnon and beating Jones glove side with a one-timer from above the right face-off circle.

Samuel Girard made it 2-0 at 5:29 of the third period with a shot from the point following a face-off win by Landeskog, who then increased the lead to 3-0 at 8:23 with a power-play goal after Blichfeld's penalty for his hit against MacKinnon.
"Just couldn't get anything going," San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. "The second goal really took the wind out of our sails. When you don't make that team defend, they have a lot of juice on offense."
Rantanen made it 4-0 at 14:34 when he got the rebound of Nazem Kadri's shot off the end boards and stuffed it inside the right post.
"We played a good game and we deserved to win tonight," Landeskog said. "We weren't happy with the way we played game one here in San Jose, and we wanted to come back and really make sure we responded and played our best game. Tonight, I definitely think we showed some of our best."

Colorado outshot San Jose 18-10 in the third period.
"Throughout our lineup guys were playing hard, trying to outwork the guys across from them," Bednar said. "I think that our focus was real good, the determination was there. We were skating and winning the races. The competitiveness that the league requires in order for you to win two out of three games, three out of four games, that's the play that we had from our guys, from [Grubauer], all the way through our lineup."
NOTES: Landeskog has scored six points (three goals, three assists) in a three-game point streak, and Girard has scored four points (two goals, two assists) in a three-game point streak. … MacKinnon's assist was his 322nd in the NHL, moving him past Alex Tanguay and into a tie with Dale Hunter for seventh in Colorado/Quebec Nordiques history. … The Avalanche are 10-0-0 when leading after two periods. The Sharks are 1-8-0 when trailing after two.