Nathan MacKinnon made sure the San Jose Sharks weren’t going to be able to engineer another dramatic comeback victory away from home on Sunday — as unlikely as it might have been.
With the Sharks trailing by three and pressing to make it a more competitive game, MacKinnon scored an empty-net goal with 4:49 left in regulation time to cap a four-point night as the Colorado Avalanche handed San Jose a 6-2 loss at Ball Arena in Denver.
Tomas Hertl, who played a key role in comeback victories over the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings on the road earlier this month, scored two power-play goals for the Sharks, with the first coming at the 9:01 mark of the second period.
But the Sharks were already down 4-0 at that point as the Avalanche scored three times in the first period, with two coming on the man advantage.
The Sharks, who have now lost eight straight games to the Avalanche since May 2021, quickly fell behind as they were unable to kill off a major penalty to Jacob MacDonald early in the first period and a double-minor to Mario Ferraro just a few minutes later.
“It’s just a hard team to play when you give them three goals and you take that nine minutes and penalties in the first period,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “You’re playing 11 minutes five-on-five of hockey and you’re recovering and no one’s getting into a rhythm and there’s no tempo.
“It was just a really strange game the way it started. You spot them three, it’s tough to come back to beat that team.”
MacDonald was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski just 2:47 into the first period. The Sharks killed most of it off, but shortly after losing a faceoff deep in their own zone, Valeri Nichushkin tapped a Drouin pass past goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.
Roughly eight minutes after MacDonald was ejected, Ferraro was assessed double-minor for roughing. Ferraro went after Avalanche defenseman Kurtis MacDermid, who leveled Sharks winger Matt Hoffman with a check well away from the puck.
Quinn didn’t think MacDonald’s hit warranted five minutes, and he was also perplexed as to why Ferraro got four minutes, two more than MacDermid.
“I don’t know how Mario gets anything other than two minutes,” Quinn said. “I mean, it was a hockey play. MacDermid’s sliding over, he steps up, that’s his guy and they wrestled. They said that he chased him around and that’s not true. What are you gonna do?”
“(The official) said it was late, (that) I came at (MacDermid) from across the ice. I don’t know,” Ferraro said. “His decision is his decision. Can’t change it. I thought I was pretty close to him. He was the winger, I was on point, he was the guy that was right next to me.
“It is what it is now. Can’t really do anything about it.”
That led to Mikko Rantanen’s goal at the 12:15 mark. Colorado then made it 3-0 just 6:05 later as Miles Wood scored on a sharp-angle shot that beat Blackwood above his right shoulder.
The Sharks also went without a defenseman, Calen Addison, in the third period after he was suffered a lower-body injury late in the second, per Quinn.
Quinn did not have an indication as to how severe Addiso’s injury might be. The Sharks, already without defensemen Matt Benning and Ty Emberson, face the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday at home. Marc-Edouard Vlasic is, however, available after he returned to the Sharks on Saturday after he missed three games for personal reasons.
