Once again, the Nathan MacKinnon show was on full display on Thursday night as the Avalanche managed to keep the Sharks off the scoresheet and lock up the series at 2-2.

Avalanche vs. Sharks Stanley Cup Playoffs Betting Analysis

It was a banner night for Philipp Grubauer, who made 32 saves and recorded his first playoff shutout for the Avs. Nathan MacKinnon saw his point streak continue; it’s now at eight consecutive games.

The Avs made it 2-0 with a goal early in the third from Colin Wilson, who was assisted on the power play by a sharp back pass from Mikko Rantanen. To ice the cake, Erik Johnson got the empty-netter to make it a 3-0 final. The clubs now head back to California for Game 5.

That shutout did little to convince Sports Interaction bettors that the Avs could keep the momentum from Game 4 going: 70 percent of bettors are backing the Sharks to get the win in San Jose on Saturday night.

Colorado Avalanche

Is it too early to predict that Nathan MacKinnon wins the Conn Smythe trophy? He’s scored the game winning goal in half of the games his team has won this postseason. His eight-game point streak has tied the playoff records of  Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic. Even his own teammates are blown away by the level of hockey that MacKinnon is playing right now.

“If he’s not the best player in the world right now, I don’t know who is,” Erik Johnson said. “Thank God he’s on our team, because he’d make a lot of us look silly. What a player. He’s clearly on a different level right now and just feeling it.”

MacKinnon was characteristically lowkey about the game, saying “You kind of feel like if we let in one, we’re screwed, we’re never going to get one. It’s good. We got a bounce. But I feel like we earned it tonight. We were prepared for a 0-0 game the whole way. It just felt like a really tight game out there tonight. We had some looks, but not a ton – and that’s okay. It’s playoff hockey.”

San Jose Sharks

The Sharks were not able to get a single point in their Thursday night scrap with the Avs. A problem they need to address is their power play performance. Last night they went 0-for-2 on the PP and in this series they’ve only generated a single goal out of ten power play opportunities.  Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer didn’t think the Avalanche would make it easy for his club, saying:

“Let’s be honest, I don’t think anybody was thinking we were going to come here and sweep both games. We had a chance to (win) halfway through the game, and we just didn’t get it done.”

After being shut out in Game 4, Sharks defenceman Erik Karlsson talked about the challenge of playing a creative team like Colorado, saying:

“They’re good, they’re going to create stuff. I think we keep it to a limit where we can control it. They’re still going to create stuff and score goals, and we have to find a way around it. Today wasn’t our best effort. We just have to learn from it and go back to San Jose and put up a better effort next game.”

AVALANCHE

Away

2

SHARKS

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