SAN JOSE, Calif. _ The Sharks knew the Colorado Avalanche were going to make a big push Sunday to start Game 2 of their second round playoff series.
It didn't happen until the second period, but it was no less effective in taking away home ice advantage.
The Sharks allowed second period goals to Gabriel Landeskog and Tyson Barrie and a third period goal to Matt Nieto in a 4-3 loss at SAP Center as the Avalanche leveled the series at one win apiece.
Colorado goalie Philipp Grubauer outdueled the Sharks' Martin Jones, as he stopped 28 of 32 shots. Jones finished with 31 saves, as his and the Sharks four-game playoff win streak came to an end.
Brent Burns finished with two goals and an assist Sunday, and now has seven points in two games this series. Games 3 and 4 are at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
The Avalanche took a 2-1 lead at the 16:31 mark of the second period.
Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic raced back to collect the puck after it was send behind the Sharks' net. The play was close to icing, but instead, Mikko Rantanen picked up the puck and sent it to the front of the Sharks' net where Landeskog's one-timer was blocked by Brent Burns.
But the puck bounced back to Barrie, who beat Jones with traffic in front with a shot to Jones' blocker side for his first goal of the postseason.
It was the first time the Sharks had been behind in the series since the midway point of Game 1 on Friday, when down, they scored the first of four unanswered goals to come away with a 5-2 win.
Nieto scored at the 10:10 mark of the third period to give Colorado a 3-1 lead. Burns drew the Sharks within one with 4:34 left in the third period, but Nathan MacKinnon scored an empty-net goal with 1:02 left in regulation. Burns added a second goal with 10 seconds to go in regulation.
The series now has a familiar feel for both the Sharks and Avalanche.
The Sharks won their series opener against the Vegas Golden Knights only to lose Game 2 and home ice advantage.
The Avalanche lost Game 1 to the Calgary Flames in their first round series, but came back to win Game 2 in overtime and largely control the series from that point forward. Colorado lost Game 1 to Calgary 4-0, but outscored the Flames 17-7 over the next four games to win the series in five.
The Sharks felt the Avalanche were going to make a push to start the first period, but it didn't happen right away.
It was some nice work by Lukas Radil that helped the Sharks open the scoring.
Radil protected the puck in the Avalanche end and was in the corner to the right of Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer when he left it for Tomas Hertl. He passed it back to the point for Brent Burns, who got a shot on net.
Kane was able to get position in front of the Avalanche net and collect the rebound before he put it past Grubauer for his second goal in nine playoff games.
The Avalanche, though, began to find a rhythm in the second period, and tied the game after they killed a holding penalty to Carl Soderberg.
Tyson was able to buy himself some room inside the Sharks' blue line before he fired a shot on goal that was tipped by Gabriel Landeskog past Jones at the 8:21 mark of the second period.
"It should give us confidence, there's no question. We went into Game 1 in Calgary and it looked to me like we were a little bit tentative and then we got back to our game in the second period and were able to continue it on through the series.
"This is a tougher challenge I think. We had a good start to Game 1 so we rebounded there a little bit, but we were unable to carry it through. There's a lot of areas we can be better at. Our team has seen that and we believe we can be better. I expect us to be a lot better."
