The Kings notched their NHL-leading 31st home of the season defeating the Colorado Avalanche 5-4. Trailing at no point in the game, the Kings victory moves the club within two points of clinching home ice advantage for the first round. As for their opponent in today, with their playoff seed already determined and a handful of players banged up, the Avalanche played today’s game without Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Ross Colton, Jonathan Drouin, Devon Toews, Ryan Lindgren and more. Nonetheless, the formidable Avalanche roster put up a sturdy fight that resulted in a game that came down to the end.
The Kings were ready to go for the afternoon start on Saturday netting a pair of goals in the opening 7:14. Opening the scoring just over four minutes into the game, Quinton Byfield found the back of the net four seconds after stepping on the ice. Coming off of the Kings bench, Byfield was the third forward into the offensive zone and joined the rush as the trailer. With the puck on Andrei Kuzmenko’s stick entering the zone, the newcomer centered the puck in the slot and found Byfield. Byfield went high on the glove side giving the King a 1-0 lead. Soon after that, the Kings earned themselves a power play and on another zone entry created offense. With Byfield speeding through the neutral zone with possession, the big center dumped the puck off to Kuzmenko along the boards. Kuzmenko immediately fed an open Kevin Fiala with a cross-ice pass and Fiala pulled out his patented pull and drag shot, beating Mackenzie Blackwood temporarily tying Adrian Kempe with his team-leading 33rd goal of the season. The Avalanche responded midway into the period and did so after a pair of Kings penalties put the visitors on a 5-on-3 man advantage. It did not take long for the Avalanche to score as Brock Nelson cut the lead to 2-1 with the help of a beautiful pass from Charlie Coyle, closing out the period’s offense.
The Avalanche then knotted the game at two’s early in the middle stanza when Valeri Nichushkin escaped his coverage in the slot and snuck backdoor for a pass. Artturi Lehkonen found Nichushkin on the weak-side after circling the net and the game was tied 2-2 2:13 into the second period. The game remained tied for the next eight minutes until the Kings connected on a face-off play in the offensive zone. After Byfield won the draw back to Brandt Clarke, the slippery defenseman shook his defender and found an open Alex Laferriere in the high slot. Laferriere one-timed the Clarke pass past Blackwood’s blocker to give the Kings a 3-2 lead and himself his 18th goal of the season. Late in the period the Kings doubled up the Avalanche and it was Anze Kopitar. Around the net all game and tying his season-high in shots with five, Kopitar won his net-front battle and banged in a rebound stemming from an Adrian Kempe one-timer. Mikey Anderson also earned an assist on the Kopitar goal after setting up Kempe for his one-timer. The Kings led 4-2 after 40 minutes of play.
Despite being undermanned, the Avalanche kept coming back at the Kings throughout the game. Cutting the Kings lead to 4-3 midway into the final period, the Avalanche created a turnover in their own end and immediately went north with the puck. Minnesota native Sam Malinski buried his fifth goal of the season on a line rush with a bar-down wrist shot on the glove side of Darcy Kuemper. The Kings responded to regain their two-goal lead just under three minutes and it was Fiala again finding the back of the net. Picking up his second point of the night, Laferriere won a puck battle below the goal line and found Fiala in the slot. Fiala one-timed the pass and potted his career-high and team-leading 34th goal of the season. Nelson netted a late goal for the Avalanche to make it a 5-4 game with 2:40 to go in regulation, but the Kings prevailed.
Kuemper’s streak of 15 consecutive games allowing two goals or less came to an end on Saturday as the netminder stopped 22 of 26 shots faced. With the win, Kuemper reached the 30-win mark for the second time in his career. The only other time in his career he reached 30 wins he won the Stanley Cup.
