Artturi Lehkonen had two goals, Josh Manson scored a go-ahead goal midway through the third period and the Colorado Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks 4-2 in Denver on Wednesday night.
Nathan MacKinnon had two assists to reach 700 for his career, Valeri Nichushkin contributed three assists, Brock Nelson had a goal and Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 23 shots for Colorado.
The Avalanche head into the Olympic hiatus with a league-leading 83 points. They have won two of their last three games after dropping four of their previous five.
With the teams skating 4-on-4, MacKinnon cycled the puck to Nichushkin, he fed Manson at the point and the defenseman’s one-timer beat a screened Yaroslav Askarov at 12:44 of the third.
Nelson sealed it with an empty-net goal at 18:43.
Timothy Liljegren and Philipp Kurashev scored goals, and Askarov made 38 saves for San Jose. The Sharks have lost four in a row heading into the Olympic break.
The Avalanche put 14 shots on goal in the first period but couldn’t get one by Askarov. They finally broke through early in the second.
Askarov made a save on Cale Makar’s shot from the right circle but couldn’t corral the rebound. Sharks defensemen John Klingberg and Dmitry Orlov battled Lehkonen for control, but it was poked into the net at 1:05, and the goal was confirmed after a review.
Lehkonen struck again later in the period when he got a pass from MacKinnon through the slot and wristed a shot by Askarov at 15:47 to give MacKinnon his milestone.
MacKinnon is the second player in franchise history to record 700 career assists, joining current team president Joe Sakic, who finished his career with 1,016.
San Jose got one back in the first minute of the third period when Liljegren’s shot from the point went off the stick of Colorado’s Parker Kelly, bounced off the ice and into the top corner at 43 seconds.
Kurashev tied it 2:51 later when he went in alone on net and beat Blackwood with a shot under his right arm.
