At home or on the road, the San Jose Sharks are winning almost everywhere.
Devin Setoguchi and Milan Michalek each scored two goals and the Sharks fended off Colorado’s third-period offensive flurry to beat the Avalanche 5-3 Sunday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
The Sharks improved to 4-2 on the road to go along with their unblemished 6-0 mark at home.
Road success is “essential in this league,” McLellan said. “You could win every home game, but 41 wins doesn’t get you in the playoffs a lot of times. You’d better be able to respond on the road. This was a good learning experience for us early in the year.”
As long as the Sharks don’t repeat it, San Jose defenseman Rob Blake said.
“It’s a different style game on the road,” Blake said. “Sometimes, you keep it simple. Tonight, it was that kind of game for us. We ended up getting it but we’ve got to improve on the road continuously. We gave up way too many chances there in the third. I thought we were a little sloppy there.”
oit 3, Vancouver 2.
Colorado was down 2-0 before getting on the board with 5:36 left in the first on a goal by Jordan Leopold, who scored from the right point after Paul Stastny got the puck out to him following a faceoff.
The Sharks rebuilt their advantage on Setoguchi’s second goal with 7:17 remaining in the second. Setoguchi got the puck in front of the net and wristed it past goaltender Peter Budaj.
The Avalanche got back to within a goal 90 seconds into the third when Milan Hejduk got his stick on a loose puck in the slot and backhanded it into the net.
Again, the Sharks responded.
Taking advantage of a turnover, Blake passed the puck to Michalek, who shot from inside the right circle before putting back his own rebound.
“This was a disappointing loss. We battled and competed, but we gave up too many rebound goals,” said Budaj.
Oilers 5, Flyers 4
At Philadelphia, Ales Hemsky had two goals and an assist, and the Oilers held on to end the Flyers’ four-game winning streak.
Sheldon Souray added a goal and an assist, Erik Cole and Dustin Penner also scored, and Tom Gilbert had three assists for the Oilers, who won their second straight after dropping five in a row.
Mike Knuble and Simon Gagne each had a goal and an assist, and Braydon Coburn and Jeff Carter also scored goals for Philadelphia, which outscored its opponents 19-7 during the streak.
oloson stopped 22 shots, including Scott Hartnell on a breakaway with 9:07 left in the third period with Edmonton leading 5-4.
Hurricanes 6, Maple Leafs 4
At Raleigh, N.C., Tuomo Ruutu had a goal and an assist, and Carolina scored three times in less than 4 minutes during the second period to beat Toronto.
Dwight Helminen and Chad LaRose also had a goal and an assist apiece, Joe Corvo and Ray Whitney scored and Eric Staal added an empty-netter for Carolina.
Mikhail Grabovski scored two goals less than 4 minutes apart, Niklas Hagman had a goal and an assist, Ian White scored and Nikolai Kulemin had two assists for the Maple Leafs, who had won four of five.
Backup goalie Michael Leighton made 29 saves in his first home victory for the Hurricanes. Curtis Joseph struggled in net for Toronto, stopping just 24 shots while remaining winless this season.
Thrashers 5, Panthers 3
At Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk scored two goals and added an assist, and Atlanta held off Florida to end a six-game losing streak.
The defeat was the fourth straight for the Panthers.
Kovalchuk scored both goals – his fourth and fifth – and assisted on Bryan Little’s sixth goal in the second period, giving the Thrashers a 4-1 lead. Erik Christiansen assisted on both of Kovalchuk’s goals.
goal of the season 3:17 into the final period.
Todd White scored an empty-net goal with 44 seconds remaining to clinch Atlanta’s first victory since Oct. 18.
Ducks 3, Flames 2
At Anaheim, Calif., Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist to help Anaheim hold off Calgary to end the Flames’ six-game winning streak.
In a matchup of teams that struggled at the start of the season, the Ducks won for the sixth time in seven games. They also continued their domination of the Flames in Anaheim, where they’ve beaten Calgary in the last eight regular-season meetings.
Getzlaf scored 1:46 in to put Anaheim ahead to stay. He assisted on Chris Pronger’s goal at 1:23 of the second period, and Ryan Carter made it 3-0 when he scored 45 seconds later.
Curtis Glencross finally got Calgary on the board midway through the second period, and Todd Bertuzzi scored 1:40 into the third to narrow the gap.
Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere finished with 34 saves, the same number Miikka Kiprusoff had for Calgary.
Red Wings 3, Canucks 2
At Vancouver, British Columbia, Mikael Samuelsson, Brian Rafalski and Henrik Zetterberg scored power-play goals and the Red Wings wrapped up a five-game road trip with a win over Vancouver.
Chris Osgood made 25 saves, and Jiri Hudler added two assists as the defending Stanley Cup champions improved to 8-2-2.
nucks, playing their third game in four nights after consecutive wins in Los Angeles and Anaheim on Thursday and Friday.
Vancouver came in with the NHL’s only perfect penalty killing on home ice, but was no match for the Red Wings’ league-leading power play. Detroit scored on its first shot with the man advantage to end the Canucks’ streak of 12-straight kills at home this season.
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