MacKinnon stays hot as Avalanche blank Sharks in Game 4 to even series

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Still, he found ways to shake free, including in the second period when the puck bounced off goaltender Martin Jones and into the air. MacKinnon was on the spot, taking one whack at it and then another to send it past Jones (“just cleaned up garbage, nothing really,” he said). It was his sixth goal in this post-season.

“I love it as a coach because I don’t think you’re going to be dancing around and making a bunch of high-skilled plays in traffic and score the highlight-reel goal that’s going tic-tac-toe,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I don’t see that happening. If you look at the goals that are scored in this series, guys are shooting, there’s traffic. Both goals were the exact same way.”

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About that pass to Wilson, just how did Rantanen even see him?

“In the corner of my eye,” Rantanen said. “Jones had pretty good position on me and trying to stuff it through his pads wasn’t going to work for me. (Wilson) was in a good spot and it was a good goal.”

For much of the night, Jones matched Grubauer’s performance. He finished with 25 saves.

“We’re disappointed, for sure. It was a good opportunity for us,” Jones said. “But it’s supposed to be tough.”

One of Grubauer’s top stops was near the end of the second period with Gustav Nyquist on the breakaway. Grubauer went into a full-out stretch in order to thwart Nyquist with his right pad.

“We had some good looks,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I thought we could have made it tougher on him.”

Grubauer and the Avs defence found a way to corral Logan Couture, the leading goal scorer in the post-season who was coming off a hat trick in Game 3.

This may be an encouraging development for the Sharks: Captain Joe Pavelski returned to skating. He was on the ice in San Jose on Wednesday, with DeBoer hearing “positive things” from the session.

Pavelski was hurt in Game 7 of the Vegas series when his helmet slammed to the ice. He’s yet to play in this series.

And while he’s has been on the minds of his teammates, DeBoer didn’t buy into the notion that Pavelski could be a rallying force for his team.

“This isn’t a ‘Rudy’ story,” DeBoer said.

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