SAN JOSE — The high-flying, supercharged Colorado Avalanche did not show up Sunday at SAP Center, but Justus Annunen made sure that version of the club wasn’t needed.
Annunen made 25 saves, including a few key ones while the Avs were clearly on the back foot, and Colorado defeated a plucky San Jose Sharks outfit, 4-1. Given the roster limitations — Colorado was again without five of its 10 best players — the Avs need to scratch out as many points as possible.
“It was huge to get a solid goaltending performance,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Wasn’t a lot of work but he made key saves at key times. We did a nice job of blocking shots in front of him. He looked solid in there. He looked big in there.
“He lets the one squeak through him on the power play, and from then on he looked better and better as the game went on.”
After beginning the season with four straight losses, the Avalanche has now won back-to-back contests. Colorado’s next four contests are all against teams that, like Anaheim two nights ago and San Jose, did not make the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Ross Colton scored twice early, then Joel Kiviranta provided a critical insurance goal early in the third period after the Sharks controlled play at times in the middle of this penalty-filled affair. Cale Makar added an empty-net goal as part of a three-point night.
Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen combined for six points in this game. They have 34 in six games — Makar has 12, which is tied for the NHL lead, while MacKinnon and Rantanen have 11 each.
“It’s been huge to have them going, because the bulk of our offense is coming from those guys as we’d expect it to, at this point,” Bednar said. “It’s a lot of pressure on them. We talked a little about making sure we’re still focusing on the defense side of it, which they really have in the last (few) games. It’s really paid off, and everyone else is sort of following suit and doing what they can.”
The first period went exactly as the Avs might have planned, save for the final couple of minutes. Colton gave Colorado a 2-0 lead with his fifth and sixth goals of the season.
Colton’s first game at 6:23 on the power play. He’s become a fixture in the bumper spot for the top power-play unit with Jonathan Drouin, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen not available. MacKinnon fed him for a one-timer in the slot. Colton’s first five goals of the season came on one-timers.
He did not need a one-timer to make it a two-goal advantage. Rantanen feathered a perfect pass to Colton as he got behind the San Jose defense for a goal at 16:37 of the period.
“(Colton) plays hard. He plays with the edge,” Rantanen said. “On the power play, he’s good in little spots, good at finishing plays like we’ve seen this year. (Jonathan Drouin) is obviously a big part of the power play, but (Colton) has been stepping up.”
Josh Manson took exception to a hit on John Ludvig and ended up with two roughing penalties instead of a fighting major. The Sharks scored 18 seconds into the power play when William Eklund was left open to the left of Annunen and roofed a shot from in tight with 1:35 left in the period.
The first period might have been one of Colorado’s best of the season to date, but the second was probably the worst outside of the loss against the New York Islanders. The Avs failed to take advantage of a 5-on-3 early in the period, then took four minor penalties themselves.
Annunen stopped all 13 shots he faced to keep it a 2-1 advantage.
This was Annunen’s first start of the season, and it came the day after Kaapo Kahkonen finally joined the club. Colorado claimed Kahkonen on waivers Oct. 11 from the Winnipeg Jets, but it took a week to resolve immigration issues before he could fly to Denver.
Alexandar Georgiev started the first five games of the season, and has improved his play after two duds to start the season. Annunen replaced him in both of those games, but quickly yielded a pair of goals in each of them, and entered this contest with a .765 save percentage (13 saves on 17 shots).
“I thought he looked really calmed,” Rantanen said of his fellow Finn in net. “It’s probably easier mentally, I’ve never been a goalie, than being put in mid-game when we are down and pushing. Now he got the start and I’m happy for him. He played well.”
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