Kings hold off Avalanche, strengthen hold on 2nd in Pacific

LOS ANGELES -- Kevin Fiala scored twice, Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere each had a goal and two assists, and the Los Angeles Kings won 5-4 against the Colorado Avalanche at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

“When we’re putting the puck in the net, we know how to hold a lead too,” Los Angeles defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “We know how to, like, really frustrate teams when we get up by a couple goals.”

Darcy Kuemper made 22 saves and had his streak of starts allowing two goals or fewer end at 15, the second-longest since the NHL expanded in 1967-68. Miikka Kiprusoff did it for 16 consecutive starts in 2003-04.

The Kings (46-24-9) moved four points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers for second place in the Pacific Division with three games left to play for each team. The Vegas Golden Knights clinched the division Saturday with a 5-3 win against the Nashville Predators, locking the Kings and Oilers into a first-round playoff series for the fourth straight season.

“We want to play here,” Clarke said. “We want to play in front of our fans. They’ve been great to us all season, and obviously we’ve done well here. And I think it’s just time to, like you said, flip the script a little bit.”

Brock Nelson scored his 300th and 301st NHL goals, Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and an assist, Mackenzie Blackwood made 27 saves, and the Avalanche (48-25-4) have lost three of four.

Colorado, which is locked into third place in the Central Division and will open the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the second-place Dallas Stars, rested several key players for the two-game Southern California road trip to wrap up the regular season. Among those held out were center Nathan MacKinnon (undisclosed) and defensemen Cale Makar and Devon Toews, who were healthy scratches.

“Regardless of who was in the lineup tonight, I like the way we competed tonight,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We certainly made a handful of mistakes that we didn’t like. But I think just like big picture, looking at the whole game, competitive, detail, we were involved physically, and I liked our skating tonight, so I thought we did a lot of good things.”

The Kings took a 1-0 lead 4:03 into the first period when Byfield scored on a wrist shot from the high slot. The Avalanche unsuccessfully challenged that Andrei Kuzmenko was offside in the buildup, and Nichushkin was called for tripping during the penalty kill.

Fiala capitalized on the extended power play, dangling Jimmy Vesey before beating Blackwood with a wrist shot from the slot to make it 2-0 at 7:14.

Colorado cut it to 2-1 at 10:39 during a two-man advantage when Nelson took Charlie Coyle’s cross-slot pass and scored on a wrist shot from the right circle. Nelson reached 300 goals in 919 games.

Nelson is the 28th United States-born player to score 300 goals and one of six active Americans to do so (Patrick Kane, Chris Kreider, Auston Matthews, Max Pacioretty, James van Riemsdyk).

Nichushkin tied it 2-2 at 2:13 of the second period with a wrist shot from just outside the crease off Artturi Lehkonen’s cross-slot pass.

Laferriere put the Kings back up 3-2 at 10:57 on a one-timer from the high slot set up by Clarke.

Anze Kopitar made it 4-2 at 16:02, backhanding in Adrian Kempe’s rebound.

Sam Malinski got the Avalanche back within 4-3 at 9:18 of the third period with a wrist shot from the right circle, but Fiala restored the two-goal margin at 12:11 on a one-timer in the slot from Laferriere.

It was Fiala’s 34th goal in 78 games to set his NHL season high. He had 33 goals in 82 games for the Minnesota Wild in 2021-22.

“I think we’ve kind of built a lot of chemistry over the past couple months, and I think it’s really starting to show,” Laferriere said of his line with Fiala and Byfield. “And I think people talk a lot about getting hot at the right time, and obviously we want to contribute in the playoffs.”

Nelson got Colorado within 5-4 at 17:20 by beating Kuemper five-hole with Blackwood off for an extra attacker.

“Probably not as tight as we typically are, especially in D-zone, but they’re going to make some plays and they’re going to test you no matter what,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said.

NOTES: Laferriere got his first NHL three-point game and has six points (two goals, four assists) during a four-game streak. … Avalanche defenseman Wyatt Aamodt made his NHL debut. He had two shots on goal in 15:09 of ice time. … Kings forward Alex Turcotte returned after missing nine games because of an upper-body injury. He had one shot in 7:31. … Avalanche forward Miles Wood did not play because of illness. … Kings defenseman Kyle Burroughs was benched for the final 14 minutes of the third period.