Sharks Become Heavy -240 Favorites to Advance Through Avalanche After Strong Game 1

• Sharks continue their momentum from Vegas series with a 5-2 win over the Avalanche.
• Can Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen continue their dominant playoff performance against the Sharks?
• Is there any reason to bet on the Avalanche?

With Game 1 now in the books, the San Jose Sharks knocked off the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 to take a 1-0 lead in their Western Conference Semifinals series. San Jose’s Brent Burns had a four-point night to power the Sharks win.

The win shortened the Sharks’ second-round series odds to -240. They were -135 leading into the series.

Sharks vs Avalanche Series Odds

Odds taken on April 27, 2019 

Playing The Wild Card

Though they lost Game 1, Colorado surprised many taking down the Calgary Flames in five games in Round 1. They shut down the Flames’ top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Elias Lindholm, while Nathan MacKinnon was dominant for Colorado and Mikko Rantanen had five goals in the series.

Cale Makar also looked good in that series as well.

Mikko Rantanen and Colin Wilson making this PPG look easy.#GoAvsGo https://t.co/sPNbotE1xN

— x – Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) April 27, 2019

Colorado is one of four wild card teams to advance – the first time that has ever happened in NHL playoff history.

Teams who win Game 1 go on to win best-of-seven playoff series 68.5% of the time in playoff history (472-217).

That trend didn’t apply to the Calgary and Colorado’s series though, as Colorado won the next four games. Two were in overtime and were one-goal games, but Colorado made it look easy winning 6-2 and 5-1 to close out the series.

Sharks on the Hunt

San Jose is coming off of an emotional roller coaster of a series beating the Vegas Golden Knights in seven. Down three games to one in that series, they completed an epic comeback in Game 7 on a controversial penalty call that led to a five-minute power play.

The Sharks scored four goals and won that series in overtime 5-4.

There is good value betting on Colorado given how they played against Calgary and because it’s still early. While it will be tougher for them to win four straight games against San Jose, they have proven that the underdog role doesn’t bother them, nor do the odds.