By Taylor Lupetti (@tayclupetti ):
The San Jose Sharks strengthened their grip on second place in the Pacific Division with a 4-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche, moving them closer to home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Avalanche (42-30-9) currently hold the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, but with the St. Louis Blues only one point behind, their fate in the playoffs will be decided on Saturday.
San Jose’s (45-26-10) win keeps them two points above the Los Angeles Kings and three ahead of the Anaheim Ducks, who have both clinched playoff spots.
Defenseman Justin Braun got things going for the Sharks less than three minutes into the first period with his fifth goal of the season with assists from left-wing forward Logan Couture and forward Mikkel Boedker.
The next 37 minutes of play remained 1-0 in favor of San Jose through the first and second periods despite a collective 40 shots on goal.
Colorado evened the score at the 4:43 mark of the third period when right-wing forward Mikko Rantanen made it 1-1 with a power play goal.
San Jose retaliated less than two minutes later when lead-scorer Couture scored a power-play goal for his 34th of the season to further his career-high.
Forward Joonas Donskoi extended it to 3-1 for the Sharks halfway through the third to give the San Jose a comfortable two-goal lead heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
The Avalanche’s second and final goal was scored by left-wing forward Blake Comeau at 13:06, slicing the score to 3-2.
An empty-netter by center Tomas Hertl with two seconds to spare gave San Jose the 4-2 win.
Avalanche goaltender Jonathan Bernier made 32 saves but earned his 13th career loss. Minding the goal for San Jose was Martin Jones, who earned his 30th win after seeing three consecutive losses.
The win puts San Jose at the 100-point mark for the eighth time in franchise history and the first time since the 2013-14 season .
The Sharks finish up their regular season at home on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. against the Minnesota Wild.