Dejan Joveljic and Riqui Puig each had two goals and an assist and the Los Angeles Galaxy opened their postseason with a dominating 5-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids in the first game of a best-of-three Western Conference series on Saturday night at Carson, Calif.
John Nelson added a goal for the Galaxy, who outshot the Rapids 20-1 in a full-on assault.
Colorado’s lone shot came in the 80th minute when Connor Ronan’s right-footed shot went over the net.
Zack Steffen made six saves for Colorado.
Game 2 is Friday on the Rapids’ home turf in Commerce City, Colo.
Los Angeles led 1-0 at halftime before breaking the game open with two goals in a two-minute span early in the second half.
Nelson struck to make it 2-0 in the 52nd minute when he received a pass from Miki Yamane and sent a right-footed shot into the top right corner of the net.
Puig then added his first goal. He pushed the ball up to Joveljic, who quickly tapped it back and Puig rolled in a right-footed shot past Steffen.
The Galaxy kept the heat on as Colorado began pushing forward to try to get its offense moving.
That allowed extra space for Los Angeles to operate and Gabriel Pec sent a left-footed shot just wide of the far post in the 70th minute and Puig hit the crossbar two minutes later.
In the 75th minute, Joveljic ripped a left-footed shot into the left corner to make it 4-0.
Puig added his second goal in the 87th minute on a right-footed shot.
The Galaxy had a 4-0 edge in shots in the first half and Joveljic broke a scoreless tie in the 32nd minute when Los Angeles had its first corner kick of the match.
Puig sent the boot toward the congested area in front of the net, where Joveljic got his head on the ball and sent it into the right corner of the net.
Los Angeles goalie John McCarthy never had to make a save.
–Field Level Media
