SAN JOSE SHARKS NOTES:
LAST GAME
Game 64 – 3/6 – SJS 3 vs WPG 2 (OT)…Logan Couture (1g, 1a) had a hand in both the game-winning and game-tying goals, lighting the lamp to clinch the win in overtime after earning a helper on Tomas Hertl’s (1g, 0a) equalizer with less than 11 seconds left in regulation to help the Sharks earn a 3-2 win at Winnipeg. Erik Karlsson (0g, 2a) had a pair of assists in the win to match his career best of 82 points for the season, previously set in 2015-16 with Ottawa. With the assist Monday, Karlsson has a hand in now four of four overtime goals scored by the Sharks on the year. Steven Lorentz (1g, 0a), who opened the game’s scoring, pushed his season total to 14 points, the highest of his career. Matt Benning’s six blocked shots in the game matched the club’s individual season high, equaling Mario Ferraro’s output in the season opener, October 7, in Prague. Nikolai Knyzhov made his return to the Sharks lineup following a pair of lower body injuries that had sidelined him from NHL action since May 12, 2021.
SJ Goals: Lorentz (7), Hertl (17), Couture (22)
SF: 24
SA: 38
SJ PP: 0/2
SJ PK: 6/6
W: Reimer
OTL: Rittich
RECENT SHARKS TRANSACTIONS
3/6 Reassigned D Nick Cicek to the San Jose Barracuda
3/5 Recalled D Nick Cicek and D Nikolai Knyzhov from the San Jose Barracuda
3/3 Recalled F William Eklund from the San Jose Barracuda
3/3 Acquired F Jacob Peterson in exchange for F Scott Reedy; assigned Peterson to the San Jose Barracuda
3/3 Assigned D Derrick Pouliot to the San Jose Barracuda
3/3 Acquired Winnipeg’s 2025 fourth-round selection in exchange for Vladislav Namestnikov
3/3 Acquired Pittsburgh’s 2023 seventh-round selection and conditional 2024 fifth-round selection (becomes fourth-round if Pittsburgh advances to the 2023 Eastern Conference Final) from Pittsburgh and the rights to D Arvid Henriksson from Montreal in a three-team trade. The Sharks traded F Nick Bonino and the club’s 2024 fifth-round selection to Montreal and D Tony Sund to Pittsburgh. Montreal traded Bonino (50% retained) to Pittsburgh in exchange for Sund.
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT: COLORADO AVALANCHE
The defending Stanley Cup champions continue a week-long, four-game home stand against the Pacific Division with a Tuesday tilt against the San Jose Sharks, bringing a record of 8-6-2 against Pacific foes into the contest. Most recently, Colorado fell in overtime against Seattle by a 3-2 final. Nathan MacKinnon, who leads the Avalanche in both points (74) and assists (49), paces the club’s current skaters in the all-time series against San Jose, operating at north of a point-per-game with 31 points (12g, 19a) in 28 meetings. Top Colorado goal-scorer Mikko Rantanen boasts 20 points and 10 goals in 18 contests against the Sharks.
COLORADO AVALANCHE NOTES:
UPCOMING GAMES
Date Opponent Time (MT) TV Radio
Tue, Mar. 7 SAN JOSE 7 p.m. Altitude 92.5 FM
Thu, Mar. 9 LOS ANGELES 7 p.m. Altitude 92.5 FM
Sat, Mar. 11 ARIZONA 4 p.m. Altitude 92.5 FM
TONIGHT’S GAME
COLORADO vs. SAN JOSE
7:08 p.m.
Altitude / 92.5 FM
The Colorado Avalanche continues their four-game homestand tonight against the San Jose Sharks at Ball Arena … This is the first meeting of the season between the Avalanche and Sharks, as San Jose is the only NHL opponent who has yet to face Colorado in 2022-23 … The Avs, who opened the homestand with a 3-2 overtime loss to Seattle on Sunday, will host Los Angeles on Thursday and Arizona on Saturday … Despite going 0-2-1 in its last three games, Colorado is still 7-2-2 in its last 11 and 14-4-3 in its last 21 contests … The Avs are in a busy stretch of 15 contests in 26 days through March 29.
ON THE CALL
Altitude TV: Marc Moser (play-by-play), Mark Rycroft (analyst), Hannah Westbrook (analyst), Katie Gaus (reporter)
Altitude Radio: Conor McGahey
LAST GAME
March 5 – Seattle 3, Colorado 2 in overtime
Brandon Tanev scored the tying goal with 2:30 left in regulation and Yanni Gourde notched the winner 1:24 into overtime to give Seattle a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena … Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves, while Nathan MacKinnon and Denis Malgin had the goals for Colorado … The Avalanche killed off all five Kraken power plays, including a 5-on-3 for a full two minutes to start the third period.
SF: 23 SA: 35 PP: 0-2 PK: 5-5
CURRENT INJURIES
Pavel Francouz – lower body (Feb. 14 – present)
Darren Helm – lower body (Jan. 14 – present)
Erik Johnson – lower body (Feb. 14 – present)
Gabriel Landeskog – lower body (Oct. 12 – present)
Josh Manson – lower body (March 4 – present)
Total Man-Game Lost: 344
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
Mar. 6 – Jonas Johansson recalled from the Colorado Eagles (AHL)
Mar. 5 – Keith Kinkaid reassigned to the Colorado Eagles (AHL)
Mar. 4 – Ben Meyers reassigned to the Colorado Eagles (AHL)
Mar. 3 – Keith Kinkaid, Brad Hunt, Ben Meyers recalled from Colorado (AHL) … Gustav Rydahl acquired from the NY Rangers in exchange for forward Anton Blidh and reports to Colorado (AHL) … Cale Makar activated from IR
Mar. 1 – Ben Meyers recalled from Colorado (AHL) … Lars Eller acquired from Washington for a second-round selection in the 2025 NHL Draft … Cale Makar placed on IR (retro to Feb. 18) … Brad Hunt recalled from the Colorado Eagles (AHL) … Justus Annunen, Brad Hunt, Ben Meyers reassigned to the Colorado Eagles (AHL)
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT – SAN JOSE
The Avalanche and Sharks meet for the first time this season, as San Jose is the only NHL opponent who has yet to face Colorado in 2022-23 … This is the Sharks’ only visit of the season to the Mile High City … The Avs and Sharks will play two consecutive games against each other in San Jose, April 4-6, to wrap up the season series … Colorado won all three meetings a year ago, sweeping the season series for just the third time (2-0-0 in 2019-20 and 4-0-0 in 2002-03) … Colorado is 11-2-0 versus San Jose since the start of the 2019-20 campaign … The Avs have won the last seven meetings here in Denver and are 9-1-0 in their last 10 home games versus the Sharks.
SCHEDULE vs. SHARKS
Mar. 7 vs. SAN JOSE
Apr. 4 @ SAN JOSE
Apr. 6 @ SAN JOSE
RECORD vs. SHARKS
THIS SEASON 2021-22 ALL-TIME SINCE 1995-96 PLAYOFFS
Overall: — Overall: 3-0-0 Overall: 57-40-12 Overall: 52-38-12 Series (record): 5 series (2-3)
Home: — Home: 2-0-0 Home: 34-14-6 Home: 31-14-6 Record Overall: 15-17
Road: — Road: 1-0-0 Road: 23-26-6 Road: 21-24-6 Last: 2019 R2 (L, 3-4)
2022-23 SEASON NOTES
VIEW TO A KILL
The Avalanche killed off all five Kraken power plays in Sunday’s overtime loss, including a 5-on-3 for a full two minutes to start the third period … The Avs PK unit has given up only one power-play goal over the last four games, killing off 10-of-11 shorthanded situations.
BACK-TO-BACK
Colorado is 11-5-2 in back-to-back games this season, going 5-3-1 in the first contest and 6-2-1 in the second … The Avalanche had a stretch of three consecutive sets of back-to-back games from Feb. 14-25, with the club earning 11 of a possible 12 points during that span … All three back-to-backs required travel in between (either home/road or road/home) and all three opponents on the second half of the back-to-back were waiting for the Avs, with Colorado sweeping all three games … The Avalanche posted a 15-5-2 (.727) combined record in back-to-back games last season, the second-best mark behind Minnesota (.732, 19-6-3) … The Avs finished 7-3-1 in the first game and 8-2-1 in the second.
Oct. 12 vs. CHI (W, 5-2)
Oct. 13 @ CGY (L, 3-5)
Oct. 21 vs. SEA (L, 2-3)
Oct. 22 @ VGK (W, 3-2)
Oct. 28 @ NJD (L, 0-1)
Oct. 29 @ NYI (L, 4-5)
Nov. 4 vs. CBJ (W, 6-3)
Nov. 5 @ CBJ (W, 5-1)
Jan. 20 @ VAN (W, 4-1)
Jan. 21 @ SEA (W, 2-1)
Feb. 14 vs. TBL (O, 3-4)
Feb. 15 @ MIN (W, 3-2)
Feb. 18 @ STL (W, 4-1)
Feb. 19 vs. EDM (W,6-5)
Feb. 24 @ WPG (W, 5-1)
Feb. 25 vs. CGY (W, 4-1)
Mar. 4 @ DAL (L, 3-7)
Mar. 5 vs. SEA (O, 2-3)
Mar. 15 @ TOR
Mar. 16 @ OTT
Mar. 26 @ ARI
Mar. 27 @ ANA
Apr. 8 @ LAK
Apr. 9 @ ANA
Apr. 13 vs. WPG
Apr. 14 @ NSH
EXTRA CREDIT
The Avalanche are 10-6 in games decided past regulation, 6-3 in overtime and 4-3 in shootouts … The Avalanche are 81-47 all-time in shootouts, the highest winning percentage (.633) of any team since the tiebreaker started in 2005-06 … The Avs have the best all-time shooting percentage at 37.9% (162/427) and the fourth-best save percentage at .716 (312/436).
WORKING OVERTIME
Mikko Rantanen has tied the single season Avalanche/Nordiques franchise record with three overtime goals this year … He equaled the mark shared by Cale Makar in 2021-22, Nathan MacKinnon in 2017-18, Tyson Barrie in 2013-14 and David Jones in 2010-11 … Rantanen’s three overtime winners are tied for the league lead.
TAKING ADVANTAGE
The Avalanche have scored five times with a 5-on-3 advantage this season, tied with the Capitals and Jets for the most 5- on-3 goals in the NHL …. The last time Colorado scored this many times at 5-on-3 was in 2014-15 (also five) and the last time they scored MORE goals with the 5-on-3 advantage was back in 2010-11 (six).
ONE MONTH AT A TIME
The Avalanche finished 7-1-2 (.800) in February, the second-best record in the NHL behind only Boston (9-1-0, .900) … February marked the 26th consecutive month that Colorado has posted a .500 or better record in, tying the franchise record set from March 1994 to February 1998 … This current run, which began in February 2019, is the third-longest active streak behind the Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes, who extended their streaks to 30 and 27 months, respectively …. Twenty four (24) of these last 26 months featured a winning record, as only October 2021 (4-4-0) and October 2022 (4-4-1) did not.
GRAND CENTRAL
Colorado is 12-5-1 against Central Division teams this season, 5-1-1 at home and 7-4-0 on the road.
ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT AND I AIN’T GOT NOBODY
The Avalanche are 13-4-0 (.765) on Saturdays this season, the most wins in the NHL … Colorado won all three Saturday matchups in February after winning all four in January.
2022-23 SEASON INJURIES
Gm Player — injury (games, dates)
15 Shane Bowers – upper body (Nov. 12 – Dec. 13)
38 Bowen Byram – lower body (Nov. 5 – Jan. 28)
2 Andrew Cogliano – upper body (Dec. 21-23)
1 Jean-Luc Foudy – lower body (Dec. 5)
17 Pavel Francouz – illness (1 game, Dec. 15); lower body (6 games, Dec. 27 – Jan. 7); lower body (10 games, Feb. 14 – present)
6 Samuel Girard – lower body (Nov. 10-21)
56 Darren Helm – lower body (35 games, Oct. 12 – Dec. 31); lower body (21 games, Jan. 14 – present)
10 Erik Johnson – lower body (Feb. 14 – present)
6 Martin Kaut – illness (3 games, Nov. 29–Dec. 3); upper body (3 games, Dec. 27-31)
61 Gabriel Landeskog – lower body (Oct. 12 – present)
3 Artturi Lehkonen – lower body (Dec. 5-9)
3 Jacob MacDonald – upper body (Oct. 12-17)
18 Kurtis MacDermid – lower body (16 games, Nov. 14 – Dec. 17); head (2 games, Feb. 27 – Mar. 1)
11 Nathan MacKinnon – upper body (Dec. 7-29)
13 Cale Makar – upper body (4 games Jan. 18-24); head (4 games, Feb. 9-15); head (5 games, Feb. 19 – Mar. 1)
9 Dennis Malgin – upper body (Jan. 7-24)
33 Josh Manson – lower body (31 games, Dec. 3 – Feb. 14); lower body (2 games, March 4 – present)
29 Valeri Nichushkin – lower body (17 games, Oct. 28 – Dec. 7); lower body (9 games, Dec. 27 – Jan. 14); upper body (2, Jan. 26-
28); illness (1 game, March 4)
11 Evan Rodrigues – lower body (9 games, Nov. 26 – Dec. 13); upper body (2 games, Jan. 2-5)
2 Devon Toews – upper body (Oct. 21-22)
344 TOTAL
