Ross Colton nets 2 goals as Avalanche top Sharks

Ross Colton scored twice and Cale Makar added one goal and two assists as the visiting Colorado Avalanche defeated the San Jose Sharks 4-1 on Sunday night.

Joel Kiviranta scored the other goal for the Avalanche, who won back-to-back games for the first time this season after snapping a four-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.

Colorado's Justus Annunen made 25 saves for his first win of the season.

Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to six games with two assists, while Mikko Rantanen had a helper to extend his own point streak to three games in the win. MacKinnon now has 18 goals and 30 assists in 35 career games against the Sharks.

William Eklund scored the lone goal and Vitek Vanecek stopped 18 shots for the Sharks, who are winless in six games this season (0-4-2).

Kiviranta made it 3-1 Avalanche at 9:57 of the third period, going forehand-backhand and beating Vanecek for his first goal of the season.

Makar added an empty-netter at 18:23 of the third.

Colorado outshot San Jose 12-6 in the first period and led 2-1 after 20 minutes.

Colton opened the scoring at 6:23 on a power play, one-timing a MacKinnon feed glove-side past Vanecek for his fifth goal of the season.

Colorado took a 2-0 lead on Colton's second marker of the game at 16:37, as the Avalanche forward beat Vanecek blocker side on a partial break. Colton has five goals in his past three games.

Eklund cut the Avalanche's lead in half at 18:25 on a power play, beating Annunen high blocker side for his first goal of the campaign.

Sunday was the first of three meetings between the two teams this season. They will meet again on Dec. 19 and March 6.

--Field Level Media