San Jose Sharks: Keys to avoiding a Game 7 against the Avalanche

The San Jose Sharks playoffs continue and the team is now just one victory away from reaching the semi-finals of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It has been a wild ride this postseason but the San Jose Sharks are just one game away from advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since their Stanley Cup Final loss in 2016.

In many ways, it’s incredible that the Sharks are even in this position at all.

All hope seemed lost at multiple points during their Round 1 series against the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas led 3-1 in the series at one point fresh off a dominant 5-0 victory on their home ice. But San Jose was able to fight back and tie the series after an incredible 2-1 victory that took nearly two full overtime periods.

This would force a Game 7 that would end up being one of the most miraculous comebacks in not only Sharks history, but in the entire history of the NHL. Following a questionable five-minute major penalty taken by the Golden Knights that injured team captain Joe Pavelski, the Sharks proceeded to score four goals within a span of four minutes in honor of their fallen leader.

Now, the Sharks sit here in Round 2 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs leading the Colorado Avalanche three games to two. One game separates them from reaching the Western Conference Finals, the first time they would do so in three years.

The Avalanche still stand in their way, but there are a number of things they can do to avoid playing a Game 7 and clinch the series in six games.

First and foremost, the Sharks must continue to contain star center Nathan MacKinnon. Colorado’s young phenom has been a non-factor as of late and played perhaps his worst game of the postseason in Game 5.

The 2013 No. 1 overall draft pick was held to just one shot on goal all game and struggled to contain Tomas Hertl who ended up scoring the game-winning goal. If San Jose can continue to slow down MacKinnon, the Sharks will be in a good position to emerge victorious.

Moreover, it will be essential to continue to get the best out of goaltender Martin Jones. Jones had perhaps the worst three-game stretch of his NHL career from Games 2-4 in the Vegas series getting pulled twice for backup Aaron Dell after allowing 11 goals on just 54 goals.

However, the 29-year-old turned his fortunes around with a historic 58-save performance in the team’s double-overtime Game 6 classic against the Golden Knights. He followed that up with an excellent 34-save showing in the team’s Game 7 victory.

Since then, Jones has been nothing short of excellent allowing two or fewer goals in six of his eight games played while posting a fantastic .926 save percentage. The Sharks will be looking for more of the same from the goalie who many felt would be benched after his lackluster regular season and disastrous early-postseason showings.

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Finally, the Sharks will be looking for more production out of their power play unit. Although the Sharks power play was one of the deadliest special teams units in the NHL during the regular season, the goals have dried up in the playoffs — and it isn’t due to a lack of opportunity.

Despite 15 total power play chances, the Sharks have capitalized on just two, scoring twice with a man advantage throughout the series. While they’ve gotten excellent play out of the likes of Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, and Timo Meier, it would be beneficial to see the Sharks capitalize when given the man advantage.

Fortunately, the Avalanche have been just as inept on the power play in this series as the Sharks scoring just twice on 17 total opportunities. But relying on Colorado’s ineptitude might prove costly, meaning that the Sharks would benefit from more production out of their own power play unit.

If the Sharks are able to capitalize on even two of these three things, they stand a very good chance of moving on to face the winner of the Dallas Stars/St. Louis Blues series. If not, San Jose could find themselves in line for another nervewracking Game 7 on their home ice.

For the sake of Sharks fans, let’s hope that the outcome is more in line with the former than the latter.