Sharks Eliminate Avalanche in Game 7 After Joe Pavelski's Return from Injury

Tomas Hertl and Joe Pavelski each posted a goal and an assist as the San Jose Sharks beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in Game 7 of their NHL Western Conference Semifinal playoff series.

Pavelski, who notched 38 goals and 26 assists during the regular season, missed the first six games of the series after suffering a pressure cut and concussion-like symptoms in Game 7 of the first round versus the Vegas Golden Knights.

Joonas Donskoi also scored for San Jose, who won the best-of-seven matchup 4-3 and will face the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference Final. San Jose will have home-ice advantage.

The Sharks jumped out to 2-0 and 3-1 leads but held on for the one-goal victory after a tense third period in which Colorado turned up the pressure with an extra attacker late but could not score.

Mikko Rantanen and Tyson Jost scored the Avs' goals. A Colin Wilson score would have tied the game at two in the second period, but the call was reversed for offside after video review.

Sharks goaltender Martin Jones made 14 of his 27 saves in the third period. Avs netminder Philipp Grubauer made 24 stops.

San Jose won 62.5 percent of its faceoffs.

The Sharks' line of Hertl, Pavelski and Evander Kane proved to be the difference.

A Brent Burns slap shot from the blue line found Pavelski's stick, and the ensuing deflection led to the Sharks' opening goal at 5:57 of the first period:

The Sharks captain's presence was remarkable considering the pregame doubt about his status, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic:

Naturally, that only fired up the home crowd even more:

And it probably made his grandmother Mary Ann Pavelski very happy:

The same goes for a few San Francisco 49ers:

Less than six minutes later, the Hertl-Pavelski-Kane line played tic-tac-toe for the Sharks' second goal:

Hertl finished it off for his ninth playoff score. He's been fantastic, in part because of his two multi-goal games.

Dimitri Filipovic of Yahoo and ESPN tweeted about Hertl's postseason breakthrough:

Fear The Fin, SB Nation's Sharks blog, agreed:

Hertl and his linemates got the Sharks off to a good start, but the Avs didn't go away quietly.

First, Rantanen answered Pavelski's deflection goal with one of his own at 19:53 of the first:

Then, Wilson netted the equalizer midway through the second period—or so it seemed. Upon video review, the goal was disallowed after Gabriel Landeskog was ruled offside:

Bob McKenzie of TSN pointed to the NHL rule in question:

Landeskog was merely headed off the ice on a line change, which naturally raised questions.

Retired NHL player Paul Bissonnette raised a good point, though:

It was a tough blow for the Avs, especially considering that Landeskog's on-ice presence had zero bearing on the goal. However, Colorado had to push on.

The Avs initially took a blow at 12:37 of the second when Donskoi snuck a shot past Grubauer:

Colorado didn't wait too long to make things interesting, though, when Jost answered less than one minute into the third by poking in a rebound at the backdoor:

It initially seemed that Jost, who also scored in Games 5 and 6, had kickstarted a Colorado comeback.

The Avs continued the pressure throughout the period and were outshooting San Jose 8-0 in the frame at one point, per Kevin Kurz of The Athletic.

However, Colorado could not score the equalizer before the final horn. The Avs kicked up the intensity in the final two minutes with the extra attacker, but Jones hung tough with four saves within a 40-second stretch.

San Jose will host St. Louis for Game 1 of the Western Conference Final on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. NBC will televise the game. The Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes will face off in the Eastern Conference Final.