Brock Nelson and Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist each, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-2 in Denver on Monday night for their eighth consecutive win.
Martin Necas, Cale Makar and Jack Drury also scored, and Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 23 shots for Colorado, which has won 14 in a row at home and is 16-0-2 this season on its own ice.
Joel Armia scored a short-handed goal, Corey Perry also had a goal and Anton Forsberg made 21 saves for Los Angeles, which has lost seven of its last nine.
The Kings carried the play for the first nine minutes of the game, outshooting Colorado 6-1, but the Avalanche capitalized on a turnover.
Ross Colton stole the puck from Alex Turcotte inside the Los Angeles zone, passed it to Drury as he skated over the blueline, and Drury’s shot trickled through Forsberg at 9:24 of the first period.
The Kings tied it with a power-play goal early in the second period when Perry deflected a pass by Kevin Fiala by Blackwood at 5:15.
Colorado went back in front later in the second period. Necas passed to Landeskog at the left post, he put a shot on net that slid along the goal line to the right post and Necas tapped it in at 13:21.
Los Angeles had a couple of scoring chances after that, but the Avalanche struck next when Joel Kiviranta fed Nelson as he entered the offensive zone, and Nelson’s wrister beat Forsberg over his left shoulder at 17:30.
The Kings got within a goal when Armia beat Blackwood with a shot through his pads at 4:58 of the third.
It was the seventh short-handed goal of the season for Los Angeles, which is the most in the NHL.
Forsberg came off for an extra skater with 2:26 left, and MacKinnon scored into the empty net at 18:23. It was his 32nd goal of the season and 399th of his career. Makar scored at 19:15 to seal it.
–Field Level Media
