Sharks get shut out 3-0 in final game of road trip

DENVER, Colo. — Devan Dubnyk was the best player on the ice tonight.

Unfortunately for him, his team is struggling to score any goals. The San Jose Sharks were shut out for the first time this season in a 3-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday evening at Ball Arena.

Mercifully, the eight-game road trip has come to an end for Team Teal (3-5) after losing two in a row for the first time all season. They will have the next three days off to rest both their bodies and minds after what has been a 35-day road trip since opening training camp in Arizona at the end of 2020.

"I think offensively it was one of the worst games of the road trip," said Sharks head coach Bob Boughner. "To be honest, if I had to pinpoint something off the top of my head, We just looked like a tired team and didn't have a lot of gas left in the tank in the second half of the game."

As for Dubnyk, he was the only one who looked sharp for the entire 60 minutes. He stopped 35 of the 38 shots, including a stretch in the first four-and-a-half minutes to open up the third period when he was under siege from Colorado. Out of the three goals that were scored (two by Nazem Kadri and the other by Andre Burakovsky), two of them were redirected past him. He has made a strong case in both his starts and relief appearances to be the Sharks number one goaltender.

"Yeah I think so, it's been growing," Dubnyk said about how high his confidence is. "Tonight, really started feeling like settling in. It's been a long time since we played hockey before this season so even getting a chance to get in off the bench like that, the more plays you see, the more you're going to settle in and start to feel like yourself again after the long layoff."

San Jose made a 180 degree turn defensively as they blocked 18 shots (the pipes chimed in with six of their own) and outhit Colorado 15-12. They did well in disrupting the speedy Avalanche on the attack and collapsed well down in the middle preventing them from getting many second-chance opportunities.

What has been continuing to be a downward spiral for San Jose is its futility on the power play. They were 0-for-4 on the evening and have failed to score a power-play goal in each of the last four games.

"I think we need to simplify it," said Tomas Hertl about his team's recent lack of success on the man advantage. "Get to the net like we did in the first couple of games. We barely had any (scoring) chances. We have to figure out. We have to come back, regroup and be better."

San Jose is scheduled to face the Vegas Golden Nights on Monday in Glendale, Arizona. However, the Golden Nights had their game with the St. Louis Blues cancelled tonight due to COVID-19 protocols. The two-game series, which would serve as the Sharks first two home games, could be in danger if Vegas isn't able to have enough healthy bodies available.

GAME NOTES

Sharks forward Sasha Chmelevski was supposed to make his NHL debut tonight, but the transaction from him going from the taxi squad to the main roster wasn't completed on time. The earliest he could make his San Jose debut is Monday.
Avalanche forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare left the game in the first period when he suffered an apparent knee injury after a collision with Sharks forward Noah Gregor. He did not return to the game.