DENVER — Captain Gabriel Landeskog scored 2:32 into overtime after Colorado squandered a late lead in law and the Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks 4-3 on Monday night to force a decisive Game 7 in their Western Conference semifinal series.
Landeskog dumped the puck into the zone, turned into a big hit along the boards, got up in time to take a pass from rookie Cale Makar and knock in the target past Martin Jones to help the Avalanche escape removal. J.T. Compher had two goals and an assist, while Tyson Jost added another.
Game 7 is Wednesday in San Jose. The winner will play either Dallas or St. Louis at the conference final.
The Stars and Blues are tied heading into Game 7 in St. Louis on Tuesday. The Sharks are 7-4 all-time in Game 7s, including a triumph over Vegas in the first round, while the Avalanche have a 4-6 mark since relocating to the Mile High City.
Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves, including a pad save on Tomas Hertl early in OT.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored twice, including the tying goal off the skate of an Avalanche defenseman with 2:28 remaining, and Brent Burns added another for the Sharks, who dropped to 22-19 when competitions are facing elimination.
This has been a back-and-forth series. San Jose captured Game 1 and both have alternated wins the rest of the way. The score in the show is 17-16 in favor of the Sharks.
Colorado has been playing hockey since late in the season trying to sneak into the playoffs. The group went 8-0-2 down the stretch to secure the seed. The Avs haven’t lost back-to-back games since mid-March.
“Every game was kind of an elimination game for us, so to speak,” defenseman Erik Johnson said. “We didn’t have a choice. ”
The last time Colorado won Game 6 when facing a deficit was the 2002 conference semifinals, which also happened to be against San Jose. The Avalanche then knocked off the Sharks 1-0 in Game 7.
Nathan MacKinnon almost gave Colorado a advantage late in the game, but his effort was deflected away by the stick of Burns. Soon after, Vlasic tied it up when he banked a shot off the right skate of Colorado defenseman Nikita Zadorov. It was put up when Zadorov struck his stick and Landeskog handed him his.
Colorado took a lead on two occasions in the second period, only to have the Sharks tie it right back up. After Jost scored, Vlasic responded. And after Compher’s goal from the blue line, Burns responded with 9.8 seconds left.
It was a painful period for Mikko Rantanen, who took a hip check from Burns at the area. Rantanen instantly went to the bench and into the locker room. Rantanen gingerly returned about 4 minutes later.
Colorado hit on two articles. Jones has surrendered only one goal to Colorado from the opening period all sequence.
Sharks captain Joe Pavelski made another step toward a return as he went Monday morning at Pepsi Center. He’s been out since his head slammed against the ice in Game 7 of a series against Vegas.
“It is daily,” Pavelski said. “Wish I had a set-in-stone response — do so go here and be ready. We re taking everything. ”
NOTES: Sharks D Erik Karlsson had his 12th assist of the 2019 postseason. … Avalanche F Matt Calvert missed a second straight game with an upper body injury. … Colorado went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
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