Avalanche at Sharks
The San Jose Sharks pulled off a stunning comeback in their first-round playoff series -- albeit with a huge assist from a controversial officiating call -- and now have the home-ice advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs. Fresh off a dramatic seven-game win over Vegas, San Jose opens its second-round series versus the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night.
The Sharks erased a 3-1 series deficit against the Golden Knights but were trailing 3-0 midway through Game 7 until a five-minute major penalty paved the way for four power-play goals in a 5-4 overtime victory. "It's a special group," San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. "We rallied like that all year at different points, even early in the series here when we were down 3-0 (in Game 2). People have written them off, or down and out ... there's a lot of belief in there." That same belief holds true for the eighth-seeded Avalanche, who spotted Calgary a 4-0 win in their series opener before rattling off four consecutive wins to eliminate the Western Conference regular season champion. "I think not too many people would have us in this position at this point in the year, but I think in our room we believe," coach Jared Bednar said of Colorado, which used a 10-game point streak (8-0-2) to punch its ticket to the postseason. "Our guys should be confident based on the way we played down the stretch and then the playoffs."
TV: 10 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, Sportsnet, CBC, TVAS
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE: Top-line center Nathan MacKinnon established career highs of 41 goals and 99 points during the regular season and added eight more points over the final four games against Calgary. "He was a difference maker every night for us, dangerous every time he touched the puck," Bednar said. "Highly competitive on the defensive side of things -- he played physical. ... He is one of the best players in the world and if he continues to play like that he's tough to handle for any team." Mikko Rantanen was moved off the No. 1 unit for the postseason and responded by leading Colorado with five goals and four assists.
ABOUT THE SHARKS: Captain Joe Pavelski, the team leader with 38 goals during the regular season, was knocked woozy and left bleeding on the game-changing penalty versus Vegas and was listed as doubtful for the series opener. "We're going to need guys to step into the lineup here and help out," said forward Logan Couture, who scored twice in the Game 7 comeback and had six goals in the series to share the lead with Tomas Hertl, one of four players with at least 30 tallies during the regular season. Much-maligned netminder Martin Jones had a woeful three-game stretch before turning aside 122 of 129 shots in his last three starts.
OVERTIME
1. San Jose went 3-0-0 against the Avalanche, winning a pair of one-goal decisions before a 5-2 victory in a meaningless regular-season finale.
2. Avalanche G Philipp Grubauer has allowed two goals of fewer in 14 of his last 16 starts.
3. Sharks D Brent Burns had two goals and seven points in the three matchups versus Colorado this season.