*Photo from Mile High Hockey*
Wednesday night against the San Jose Sharks, the big guns on the Colorado Avalanche top line went crazy, particularly Mikko Rantanen. Rantanen had a 4 point night, Gabe Landeskog produced 4 points of his own, and the Avalanche shut out the Sharks with a 4-0 win Wednesday night.
Rantanen started the scoring at the 14:24 mark of the second period, scoring his 9th goal of the year to give the Avs a 1-0 lead. In the 3rd period, Samuel Girard scored at the 5:29 mark, followed by a Landeskog power play goal at 8:23, and then Rantanen scored his second of the night and 10th of the season at 14:34 of the 3rd, sealing this one off.
Rantanen talked about his offensive production, saying that "It's not all about the points. 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. Obviously, playing on the first line you have to produce some points to help the team win, but it's not the biggest thing for me."
Philipp Grubauer got the start in net for the Avalanche, and had a perfect outing, saving all 26 shots that came his way during the game. Grubauer's stellar performance increased his record to 11-6-0 on the season, with the Avalanche now holding a 12-7-1 record, good for 3rd place in the stacked West Division.
Grubauer talked about the win after losing their first game against the Sharks, saying that it was a "Hell of a response compared to last game. I think everybody bought in, everybody worked hard, 60 minutes. We didn't have five minutes pressure on them and then 15 minutes in our own zone, so it was really good. I think like Mikko said, it's not always about the points or the goals or the assists you score and have, it's about the team and helping the team win. I think that was a really good game from us."
On the other side of things, Martin Jones was the starting goalie for the Sharks, who took the loss in this game after taking the first of a two game set against Colorado. Jones saved 34 shots out of the 38 that came his way throughout the night. Jones sits at a 7-6-1 record after the loss, while the Sharks possess a 8-10-2 record, good for just 7th place in the West Division.
San Jose defensemen Mario Ferraro was frustrated about the lack of success from the Sharks as they sit under .500 on the season and just above last place in the West. Ferraro said postgame that "We want to get over that .500 mark. We have to stack up some wins, but we don't want to get frustrated with each other. With these two game sets it's tougher to win."
The Avalanche play again on Friday when they welcome the Anaheim Ducks to town, and Grubauer is slated to start that game. The Sharks host the division leading Vegas Golden Knights on Friday, with Jones expected to start once again.
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