Avalanche shut out Sharks, dodge serious injury to MacKinnon
Mar 4, 2021, 6:32 AM
The Avalanche put together one their best performances this season in San Jose, shutting out the Sharks 4-0 to finish a successful road trip. And more importantly, they were fortunate to avoid major injury to Hart Trophy candidate Nathan MacKinnon after a cheap shot by Sharks winger Joachim Blichfeld in the third period.
Blichfeld lowered his right shoulder directly into MacKinnon’s jaw, and the Avalanche watched their superstar center collapse in a heap before taking some liberties with the Sharks near the San Jose bench. Blichfeld was assessed a game misconduct penalty, as MacKinnon slowly skated off the ice and never returned.
After the game, coach Jared Bednar had good news.
“I saw him coming off the ice; he was in the hallway. Seems to be doing good; I think that we get lucky on it,” Bednar offered. “Hopefully he is feeling good and everything tomorrow, but as of right now, he seems to be fine.”
Mikko Rantanen, who had his team-leading 10th goal as part of his four points on the night, had to be restrained from going after Blichfeld on his way off the ice, and was succinct afterward.
“I hope the league takes a look at it and gives some penalty for that,” Rantanen said.
After being embarrassed by the Sharks 6-2 on Monday, captain Gabriel Landeskog was pleased by the team’s effort in Wednesday’s win, even if he didn’t seem too surprised by it.
“We opened up the room and had a good conversation, and that was needed at this point in the season. I mean, we weren’t so worried about tonight — we had a good feeling that we were all going to play well tonight — but it’s just about what we do on Friday and what we do on Saturday, and what we do game after game moving forward. It’s a good test for our team. We know every single team is going to play their best against us, and we are not going to get any easy matchups. Happy with the way we responded tonight. We will rest up and get ready for this weekend.”
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NEXT UP: Avalanche (12-7–1, 25 pts) vs. Ducks (6-12-5, 17 pts) | Friday, Mar. 5 at 7:00 p.m.
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TEAM NOTES
• After Nathan MacKinnon left with injury due to a hit to the head by San Jose’s Joachim Blichfeld, the Avalanche scoring on the five-minute major. That was their third straight game with a power-play goal.
• Colorado killed all three power plays on Wednesday, raising their penalty kill unit’s success rate to a league-leading 88.9 percent (56-for-63) on the season.
• The Avalanche finished their road trip 3-1. They’ll head back to Ball Arena to start a nine-game homestead on Friday. The Avs will play a whopping 15 of their next 17 games at home.
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PLAYER NOTES
• Philipp Grubauer stopped all 26 shots he faced to earn his third shutout of the season, and his eighth in his Colorado career, moving to fifth place in team history. “I think everybody bought in, everybody worked hard [for] 60 minutes,” Grubauer explained. “We didn’t have five minutes pressure (of) on them and then 15 minutes in our own zone, so it was really good.”
• Mikko Rantanen scored two goals and had two assists to tie his career high in points with four. “It’s not all about the points,” he explained. “Some games, you don’t feel good and you might get three points, and some nights you are playing awesome; you get scoring chances every shift and you might get no points at all. It’s not the biggest thing for me.”
• Sam Girard scored his fourth goal of the season, matching a career-high. Girard scored four goals in each of the last two seasons, but it took him 82 and 70 games, respectively, to reach that total. This season, Girard reached it in only 18. The 22-year-old defenseman has been skating with obvious confidence and skill this season.
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THE FINAL WORD
“Hell of a response, compared to last game.” — Philipp Grubauer, on Wednesday’s shutout win against a Sharks team that stunned the Avs in a 6-2 loss on Monday.
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INJURY WATCH
• Cale Makar (upper-body injury) missed the Feb. 27 game and has not played since.
• Dennis Gilbert (facial injury) was placed on injured reserve on Feb. 20. He is expected to be out until at least late March.
• Kiefer Sherwood (unspecified) missed the Feb. 16 game and has not played since.
• Erik Johnson (upper-body injury) left the Jan. 30 game and is week-to-week.
• Matt Calvert (concussion symptoms) has not played since Jan. 24. On Jan. 28, coach Jared Bednar said he will be cautious regarding his timetable for return.
• Pavel Francouz (lower-body injury) has yet to play this season and remains on injured reserve.
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LAST NIGHT’S LINES
FORWARDS:
Top Line: LW Gabriel Landeskog, C Nathan MacKinnon, RW Mikko Rantanen
Second Line: LW Brandon Saad, C Nazem Kadri, RW Andre Burakovsky
Third Line:, LW Valeri Nichushkin, C J.T. Compher, RW Joonas Donskoi
Fourth Line: LW Tyson Jost, C Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, RW Logan O’Connor
DEFENSEMEN:
Top Pair: LD Ryan Graves, RD Samuel Girard
Second Pair: LD Jacob McDonald, LD Devon Toews
Third Pair: LD Dan Renouf, RD Conor Timmins
GOALTENDERS:
Starter: Philipp Grubauer
