Avalanche defeat Kings, extend winning streak to 8

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon and Brock Nelson each had a goal and an assist, and the Colorado Avalanche extended their winning streak to eight games with a 5-2 victory against the Los Angeles Kings at Ball Arena on Monday.

Jack Drury, Martin Necas, and Cale Makar also scored for the Avalanche (29-2-7), who have won 14 straight at home and are 10-0-1 in their past 11 overall. Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves.

“I think your goal of your team is that, in any season, that you feel like you can win every night. That's what you want,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “You want to have that belief. You have to have that belief, or you won't. You won't win and you won't win as much as you think you should, right?

“So, I think they've done a nice job with their focus, that we're focusing on the right things, and it's kind of snowballing for us. So, we go into every game expecting to win, and that's what you want them to feel.”

Corey Perry and Joel Armia scored, and Anton Forsberg made 21 saves for the Kings (16-13-9), who are 2-5-2 in their past nine games.

“You're always going to make some mistakes. We made our mistakes, not that many,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “They’ve got a team that can finish, they showed us that. Overall, we will take that hockey game in this building. Night after night I would expect that we'd win more than we'd lose if we did.

“Here's the positive for me. Over the last few games, we look a little bit more like we're playing a little freer, a little looser. We look more dangerous. We've got more speed coming through the neutral zone. So, there's lots of things to like from a big picture. In the end, we've got to win games, but if we can play like this, then we'll win games.”

Drury gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 9:24 of the first period. Ross Colton stole the puck off the skate of Alex Turcotte along the right wall in the offensive zone and fed Drury, who scored off the blocker of Forsberg from the high slot.

“I liked him a lot tonight,” Bednar said of Drury. “I thought he was he was going right from the start. That line was going. I thought they played with really good energy and did a nice job, not just on the attack and getting that goal -- like Colton strips the guy, makes a nice play on it -- but on the defending side, too. They had some tough matchups tonight and did a nice job.”

Perry tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 5:15 of the second period, tapping Kevin Fiala’s centering pass past the left pad of Blackwood from the edge of the crease.

Necas put Colorado back in front 2-1 at 13:21, knocking in a loose puck at the right post. His initial pass deflected into the crease off the skate of Cody Ceci, and Gabriel Landeskog's diving attempt knocked it under Forsberg and across to the far post.

Nelson extended the lead to 3-1 at 17:30, scoring with a wrist shot from the right circle that went short side over Forsberg's left shoulder.

“It was a great play by the 'D' kind of finding [Joel Kiviranta] with space through the neutral [zone] there, and [I was] able to find some wide ice,” Nelson said. “And just knowing the angle a little bit, I wanted to go high glove.”

Armia cut it to 3-2 with a short-handed goal at 4:58 of the third period. He skated the puck the length of the ice, toe-dragged it around the stick of Makar to change the angle, and scored five-hole with a wrist shot from the high slot.

“I feel like I didn't get pressured that much, and I just saw lane and tried to take it,” Armia said. “I think we played pretty good. We had a lot of chances to score but just didn’t."

MacKinnon shot into an empty net at 18:23 to make it 4-2, and Makar scored on a rebound at 19:15 for the 5-2 final.

“I thought we played well. I thought we kept their top guys to minimal chances. I thought we played them really strong,” Kings forward Adrian Kempe said. “Only [scoring] two, obviously, it's tough winning games. We're struggling scoring, so it's obviously frustrating. Everything else I thought was clicking pretty well tonight.”

NOTES: The Avalanche improved to 16-0-2 at home this season. They are the 13th team in NHL history to begin the season with an 18-game home point streak. ... Armia scored the 21st short-handed goal of his career, tying Jordan Staal and Blake Coleman for the third-most among active players. Brad Marchand (36) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (23) are the only players with more. ... MacKinnon is one goal shy of 400 in the NHL.