McNabb leads Kings past Avalanche
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Los Angeles Kings.Defenseman Brayden McNabb's career-high three-point game helped the Los Angeles Kings defeat the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 at Pepsi Center on Tuesday.
McNabb had a goal and two assists for the Kings. Kyle Clifford had a goal and an assist, and Justin Williams had two assists.
The Kings (32-21-13), who are 3-0-1 in their past four games, are one point behind the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Jets, who lost 5-4 to the St. Louis Blues, have 15 games left, and the Kings 16.
The Avalanche (30-26-11) had won three games in a row to match their longest winning streak of the season. They are seven points behind the Jets with 15 games remaining.
Kings goalie Jonathan Quick made 21 saves for his 28th win of the season.
The Kings took a 3-1 lead in the first period while chasing rookie goalie Calvin Pickard, who was replaced by Reto Berra at 14:15 after allowing three goals on eight shots.
Pickard was recalled Monday from the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League because Semyon Varlamov is out with a groin injury.
The Avalanche drew within 4-2 at 8:27 of the third period when Alex Tanguay scored into an empty net off Marc-Andre Cliche's pass, but the Kings answered at 9:56. Jake Muzzin beat Berra from the top of the left circle for his seventh goal, first in 18 games.
The Kings grabbed an early 2-0 lead on goals by Marian Gaborik and Jeff Carter. Gaborik tipped in McNabb's shot on a power play at 7:47 of the first period to open the scoring and end the Avalanche's penalty-killing streak at 19 in a row.
Carter beat Pickard to the glove side at 11:58 off a feed from Jordan Nolan after Trevor Lewis intercepted a pass from Tanguay in the neutral zone.
The Avalanche cut the deficit to 2-1 at 12:53 on a goal by Tyson Barrie, his 11th. Gabriel Landeskog passed to Barrie, who skated down the left wing and cut to the near hash marks for a shot past a screened Quick.
McNabb got that one back for the Kings at 14:15 with a knuckleball-type shot from 40 feet that eluded Pickard to the stick side for his second goal of the season.
Clifford increased the Kings' lead to 4-1 at 15:03 of the second period during a scramble in front of Berra. It was his fifth goal.
The Kings killed off two penalties in the second period and three for the game while limiting the Avalanche to one shot. They've killed 40 of 42 penalties in the past 16 games.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
11/03/2015 - 04:54
