Kings continue surge
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Los Angeles KingsThe Los Angeles Kings continued their surge in pursuit of a Stanley Cup Playoff berth with a 4-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Wednesday.
The Kings (27-18-12), who have outscored teams 23-12 during a six-game winning streak, have the same point total as the San Jose Sharks (66) for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
The Avalanche (24-23-11), who had won two games in a row, are seven points behind the Sharks.
The Kings line centered by Jeff Carter accounted for two goals and two assists in the second period when Los Angeles scored three times to take a 3-1 lead.
The Dwight King-Carter-Tyler Toffoli line has combined for 13 goals and 13 assists during the winning streak.
Kings goalie Jonathan Quick made 42 saves, 18 in the second period. Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov made 21 saves.
Carter scored an empty-net goal during a power play with 52.3 seconds remaining.
Carter tied the game 1-1 at 1:16 of the second period when he tipped Toffoli's shot behind Varlamov. King corralled the puck after it bounced by Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog and passed to Toffoli, who shot from the high slot.
The Kings took a 2-1 lead at 6:24 when Toffoli skated down right wing, cut inside the Avalanche defense and went to the net untouched. He jammed the puck by Varlamov's outstretched right pad.
Dustin Brown scored at 15:30 during a delayed penalty off a feed from Drew Doughty, who skated behind the net and passed through a pack of players in front. Brown knocked in the puck from outside the crease.
Landeskog extended his goal-scoring streak to four games at 3:09 of the first period. He accepted a pass from Nathan MacKinnon in the left circle and beat Quick with a shot to the short side. MacKinnon has an assist in four consecutive games.
The play began in the Kings end when Avalanche defenseman Nick Holden knocked down King with a hit in the corner.
The Avalanche applied plenty of pressure on a power play after Justin Williams tripped Ryan O'Reilly at 8:41, forcing Quick to make five saves.
The Avalanche, who ended an 0-for-32 drought on power plays Monday in a 5-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes, went 0-for-3 Wednesday.
The Kings also went 0-for-3 and have failed to score on 14 consecutive power plays in the past six games.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
19/02/2015 - 07:00
