Eurolanche

Iggy scores n. 600, Avs defeat Kings

Jarome Iginla scored his 600th NHL goal and Tyson Barrie had a career-high four points (two goals, two assists) to help the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Pepsi Center on Monday.

Iginla became the 19th player in League history to reach the milestone when he scored on a power play at 13:02 of the third period. Iginla took a feed from Barrie in the left circle and his centering pass hit Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin's skate and caromed behind goalie Jhonas Enroth.

Iginla, who had gone three games without a goal, received a rousing ovation from the crowd and was mobbed by his teammates while his achievment was acknowledged on the videoboard above center ice.

"It does feel good," said Iginla, who had five shots in 13:05 of ice time and has 11 goals this season. "You try not to think about it. The guys, my teammates, have been great. But we didn't want it to be a distraction and the guys were real focused tonight, they played great and it feels good. It's something where you try not to think about getting close and every chance, every nice pass it's, 'Here maybe, maybe.' You try and stay focused and stuff, but it was nice."

"You got to get lucky for sure. You got to get lucky at times and that was a lucky play. Tyson gave it to me and I was trying to kind of walk the net and see what opened up from down low. Gabriel Landeskog was in front, I think he was battling with Muzzin, and I was trying to put something in there for him, through the screen for him. Matt Duchene was going back door. It was a great bounce to go off the skate and in."

"It was a great bounce on the goal and I feel very blessed to get here. I've played with some great passers and now it's just (about) going forward and winning games."

Said Avalanche coach Patrick Roy: "Very happy for him. Hit a skate and went in. Hey, you put it toward the net and good things happen. It's quite something."

Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves for Colorado (19-18-3), which pulled within four points of the Nashville Predators for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Western Conference. The Avalanche were 0-2-2 in their previous four home games.

Tyler Toffoli scored and Enroth made 29 saves for Los Angeles (25-12-2), which saw its five-game winning streak end.

Barrie said he didn't mind being overshadowed by Iginla's accomplishment after setting a career high for points in a game. "I couldn't be more happy for him," Barrie said. "He's one of the best teammates out there, one of the best guys I ever met. It's impressive what he's doing."

Barrie said he hoped to get a picture with Iginla after getting the primary assist (Blake Comeau had the secondary assist) on the goal.

"I didn't really have much to do with it," Barrie said. "I was hoping I'd set him up for a one timer and he'd put it top shelf. I tried to spread out the (penalty killers) and threw it over to him. He said he was trying to shoot for a deflection and it bounced in."

"It's a cool thing for me to be involved with that. I just want to try to make it to 600 games. Six hundred goals, it's hard to fathom."

The Avalanche were 3-for-5 on the power play and have scored 11 goals with the man-advantage in the past seven games.

"[Iginla's] been around the League and he's been known to score goals," Kings center Anze Kopitar said. "I don't know how long he's been waiting for this one, but I'm sure it's got to be pretty exciting for him. Not too much fun being on the other side of it, but I'm sure it's exciting for him."

Duchene, who had one goal in the previous seven games, deflected Barrie's shot over Enroth's right shoulder on a power play to give the Avalanche a 3-1 lead at 1:23 of the third.

Barrie scored two goals in the second period to help the Avalanche take a 2-1 lead. He opened the scoring at 6:34 with a power-play goal after Muzzin was penalized for high-sticking Cody McLeod. Duchene passed to Barrie, who was just inside the blue line, for a shot that beat a screened Enroth to the stick side.

It was the 12th time in the past 14 games that the Avalanche scored first.

"I felt good tonight, shooting the puck well," Barrie said. "I just tried to get shots through when I could and it worked out."

The Kings answered with a power-play goal at 11:01 after Varlamov cleared the puck over the glass for a delay-of-game penalty. Kopitar got the puck to Toffoli in the left circle for a shot inside the near post for his fifth goal in five games and 19th of the season.

The Avalanche regained the lead at 12:20. Andreas Martinsen led a rush into the Kings end and gave Barrie a drop pass for a shot that went into the net off Enroth's right pad.

Colorado played with five defensemen after Erik Johnson sustained a lower-body injury in the second period. He did not return.

-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --

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