It almost seemed as if the Colorado Avalanche wanted to see Sharks forward Patrick Marleau reach the 500-goal benchmark. The 37-year-old Saskatchewan native is now just three goals shy of 500 after netting four in the third period of a 5-2 victory over the Avalanche in Denver.

Marleau scored a natural hat trick in the third period of Monday night’s game at Pepsi Center, becoming only the 12th player in NHL history to score four goals in a period and the first to do so in nearly 20 years. The No. 2 pick in the 1997 draft, Marleau has scored all 497 of his NHL goals with the Sharks.

Jarome Iginla scored in the second period for Colorado to knot the game at one and Andreas Martinsen scored his second goal of the season in the third period in between Marleau’s third and fourth goals of the frame. Iginla’s goal marked No. 617 for his career. He needs eight more to tie Avs general manager Joe Sakic for 15th on the all-time list. Marleau is 46th.

Colorado has one more contest remaining before departing for the All-Star break. The Avalanche host Vancouver on Wednesday at Pepsi Center with puck drop at 7:30 p.m. MT.