Avalanche rallies from two-goal deficit to win at San Jose in overtime

Defensive-end turnovers led to San Jose’s first two goals Monday night, but the Avalanche rallied twice from two-goal, third-period deficits and got an overtime goal from forward Andre Burakovsky to defeat the Sharks 5-4 at SAP Center.

Burakovsky, who set up the play that got Colorado within 3-2 at 1:18 of the third period, changed for Mikko Rantanen in the second shift of OT and drove in between the circles and fired a wrist shot off the glove of goalie Martin Jones, who saw the puck roll across the goal line behind him 41 seconds into OT.

It was the first shot of the game for Burakovsky, who was otherwise stellar as the right winger on the Avs’ second line.

“Definitely nice to see it go in,” he said.

The victory got Colorado (34-12-4) within two points of the West Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights, who fell 6-5 at Minnesota earlier Monday. The Avs, who have six remaining games, have a game in hand over the Knights (36-13-2) and the third-place Wild (33-14-4).

The division’s No. 1 seed will likely open the playoff against fourth-place St. Louis (24-19-7), which is close to clinching the final spot.

The Avalanche rallied from 3-1 and 4-2 third-period deficits. It got goals from forwards Valeri Nichushkin, Gabe Landeskog and Nazem Kadri to force overtime. Kadri tied it 4-4 at 16:21 with his first goal in 20 games.

“Oh, man, it felt good. It felt good, for sure,” Kadri said of ending his scoring drought. “Finally, one went in.”

San Jose took a 3-1 lead into the third period. Two Avalanche defensive-end turnovers led to the Sharks’ first and third goals.

Evander Kane capitalized on the first, making it 1-0 at 3:20 of the first period after Nichushkin was sloppy with the puck twice on the same play. The second came 1:57 into the second period when Colorado defenseman Patrik Nemeth made an errant pass into the skates of teammate Tyson Jost, and San Jose’s Tomas Hertl came up with the puck and beat goalie Philipp Grubauer from the top of the crease.

Kane scored the Sharks’ second goal on a semi-breakaway, following an Avalanche offensive-zone turnover by Landeskog. The Sharks produced 13 of the 15 shots in the second period — which might have been Colorado’s worst frame of the season.

“I loved our response in the third period, just the heightened sense of urgency and a little bit of desperation in our game,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We didn’t manage the puck well (earlier) and it put us in the hole. My belief was, we were there to work and skate and we needed to turn up that competitiveness a little bit and had to be way better with the puck. And the guys responded.

“They knew how big of a game it was for us because we had seen Minnesota had come back to win in regulation, so fighting to stay ahead of them and also pulling within two points of Vegas if we won. So the guys were fired up for the third period to get out there and we believed we could get the job done.”

Pregame, Bednar said the club’s top prospect, forward Alex Newhook, will likely make his NHL debut at some point during this five-game road trip. Newhook, 20, has had just one ice session with the Avs, which was Monday’s morning skate at SAP Center. Newhook, who signed out of Boston College on March 31, has nine points (five goals) in eight games with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.

“It’s a very good possibility that he’ll play on this trip,” Bednar said of Newhook, the 2020 Tim Taylor Award winner as the NCAA’s player of the year. “I want to let him settle in for a day here. If we’re putting him in, we want to put him into a situation and position where he can succeed. Obviously, he’s got a knack offensively. He’s made an impact (with the Eagles) in a short amount of time so we’d like to give him the same opportunity here playing with good players, and play him up the lineup a little bit.”

Newhook, selected by the Avs with the 16th pick of the 2019 draft, is a natural center. But Bednar might have him begin on the wing and contribute on the power play and the penalty kill.

Footnotes. Avs backup goalie Devan Dubnyk was added to the NHL’s COVID protocol absence list Monday afternoon. Postgame, Bednar said Dubnyk tested positive for the virus and will quarantine at his home in San Jose, where he played with the Sharks until being traded to the Avs ahead of the trade deadline last month. Bednar said Dubnyk will eventually drive to Denver and rejoin the team at the outset of the playoffs. Third-stringer Jonas Johansson backed up Grubauer on Monday. … Colorado got defenseman Ryan Graves back in the lineup. He was scratched in Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the Sharks at Ball Arena after taking an elbow from Kane in Friday’s 3-0 triumph over San Jose.

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