Avalanche pull away from Sharks, pad lead in West

DENVER --Mikko Rantanen scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period for the Colorado Avalanche in a 4-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Ball Arena on Thursday.

Alex Newhook, Darren Helm, and Andre Burakovsky also scored, and Nazem Kadri and Erik Johnson each had two assists for the Avalanche (48-14-6), who are 7-1-1 in their past nine games. Pavel Francouz made 25 saves.
Colorado leads the Calgary Flames by 13 points for first place in the Western Conference.
"It was a great game from us since the start," Francouz said. "They evened it up a little bit in the second, and the third period was something I've never experienced before. We just played in their zone all the time, and they barely got some shots. So that was unreal."
Timo Meier and Brent Burns scored, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 42 saves for the Sharks (29-30-8), who were coming off a 5-2 loss at the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.
"I thought we played hard for being in a back-to-back situation," San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. "I thought there were a lot of good things with our game. That's one of, if not the best, teams in the league. There were things we needed to do better, face-offs and pouncing on some of our chances."
Rantanen made it 3-2 at 12:17 of the third with a power-play goal. He shot past the outstretched glove of Kahkonen after receiving a cross-ice pass from Kadri.
"Mikko, he got better as the game went on," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "I thought he had a little bit of a slow start to the game, but he comes up clutch on a big power-play goal. Great pass from 'Naz.' It was a little bit of a broken play, but they find a way to get it to the open man, and he made no mistake on it."

Burakovsky scored on a rebound at 15:16 for the 4-2 final.
"[Kadri] makes a play around the back of the net into [Johnson]" Bednar said. "He just shoots it, we get a great rebound, and [Burakovsky] puts it in the back of the net. That's what we need."
Newhook gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 1:54 of the second period when he flared above the circles and scored on a one-timer through traffic.
"[Newhook] got one finally, too, and on a beautiful play," Bednar said. "He pops into the middle of the ice, and [Kurtis] MacDermid, I think, found him in the middle for the one-timer."
Meier tied it 1-1 at 12:09, shooting into an open net off a pass from Tomas Hertl, who drew a tripping penalty as he was attempting to cut across the crease.
"They're a good team over there," Meier said. "They've got a lot of firepower. We've got to improve and bring more to beat a team like that."

Helm put the Avalanche back in front 2-1 at 3:05 of the third period, scoring on a 2-on-1 after Valeri Nichushkin gloved down a clearing attempt from Erik Karlsson.
"[Nichushkin] made a good jump and knocked the puck down with his hand, made a pretty nice sauce pass over to me. It was really nice play by him," Helm said. "I like to chip in a little bit once in a while, but obviously defense and PK is a big part of my game. I think we can, we as the fourth line, can chip in in games, and I think it really helped with the team."
Burns tied it 2-2 at 6:29 with a wrist shot following a face-off win by Hertl.
NOTES:Sharks forward Matt Nieto returned to the lineup after missing five games with an undisclosed injury. He had one block in 15:47 of ice time. … Rantanen's power-play goal was his 16th this season, tying his NHL career high he set in 2018-19.