San Jose @ Colorado preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 30, 2019 ) San Jose 4, Colorado 2

Logan Couture has an NHL-best nine postseason goals, an impressive number to be sure but one that carries little weight in his eyes. Fresh off his first playoff hat trick, Couture looks to help the San Jose Sharks take a commanding lead in their Western Conference second-round series on Thursday when they play Game 4 against the host Colorado Avalanche.

"We haven't won. So I don't care what my numbers get to be," said Couture, who erupted for 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) during San Jose's run to the Stanley Cup in 2016. "I could go this whole playoffs and have zero points, and if we win the Stanley Cup, I'll be the happiest guy in this room." The 30-year-old did flash a toothy grin after his three-goal performance in Tuesday's 4-2 win gave him 43 postseason tallies, one more than Sidney Crosby for the second-best total (Alex Ovechkin, 50) since he entered the league in 2010. Couture isn't the only player riding a hot streak, as Nathan MacKinnon scored late in the second period on Tuesday to extend his point streak to seven games (five goals, seven assists) -- the longest by an Avalanche player since Peter Forsberg's seven-game run in 2004. "He's working. He's got a hunger to his game right now, and he's working at the point of the puck, he's working away from it," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said of MacKinnon.

TV: 10 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, CBC, Sportsnet, TVA

ABOUT THE SHARKS: Timo Meier scored a goal and set up two others on Tuesday to become the first 22-year-old member of the Sharks to record a three-point performance in the playoff game since Pat Falloon collected two goals and an assist against Calgary on May 19, 1995. Meier has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past six games while defenseman Brent Burns had that total in his first two contests of this series before being held off the scoresheet in Game 3. The 34-year-old Burns has 11 points to reside one shy of Couture for the team lead, although only one has been recorded on the road.

ABOUT THE AVALANCHE: Matt Nieto scored to forge a tie at 2 midway into the third period on Tuesday, giving him goals in back-to-back games against the team with which he spent parts of his first four NHL seasons. The 26-year-old Californian has four goals in eight postseason games, tying him for third on the team while matching his regular-season total set in 64 contests. Nieto's six points are tied for fourth-best with captain Gabriel Landeskog, who has six points in six encounters -- regular season and playoffs -- with San Jose in 2018-19.

OVERTIME

1. San Jose G Martin Jones has yielded 14 goals in his last six starts, going 5-1 in that stretch.

2. Colorado had won eight in a row at home and owned a 13-3-1 mark in a 17-game stretch at the Pepsi Center prior to Tuesday's loss.

3. Couture is the third member of the Sharks to score nine goals in the team's first 10 postseason games, joining Patrick Marleau (2006) and captain Joe Pavelski (2010).

PREDICTION: Avalanche 3, Sharks 2