Recap: Colorado reaches eight straight wins downing Kings 5-2

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With a final two games at Ball Arena before the new year, the Colorado Avalanche, wearing their road white uniforms, hosted the LA Kings who they hadn’t seen since opening night. Much like that first game of the season, Colorado emerged on top with a 5-2 victory. The game was much closer than the score indicates but Los Angeles could never find a lead and gave Colorado their eighth win in a row.

The Game

The match started with a physical edge but naturally the Avalanche broke through for the game’s first score. On their second shot on goal at the halfway mark Jack Drury fired a puck on Anton Forsberg, which he’d probably like back, and fell into the net. Ross Colton assisted on the play for his first point in 11 games. Other than an ineffective Apower play nothing much else happened in the first period as Colorado held on to their 1-0 lead.

It was the Kings who answered back in the second period and of course on their power play from none other than Corey Perry. He got inside position on Brent Burns and chipped a pass from Kevin Fiala past Mackenzie Blackwood.

However, before the end of the period Martin Nečas would save the day on another miscue by Forsberg as the puck skittered across the goal line the Avalanche forward poked it home. Colorado wasn’t yet done in the period as Brock Nelson fired a puck from Joel Kiviranta past Forsberg to go up 3-1, and that’s how the second frame ended.

The Kings attempted to keep it interesting as they took advantage of Colorado’s lackluster power play and converted a shorthanded goal that Blackwood let go right through him. It wasn’t the first chance for the Kings shorthanded, though, but Joel Armia was the King to finally break through to get Los Angeles within one.

As the third period went on, the Kings were creating enough pressure and momentum to make it a game again but couldn’t find the back of the net. Despite playing the Avalanche very even analytically they weren’t able to generate enough offense and then pulled their goaltender to give the Avalanche free points. Nathan MacKinnon was a quick beneficiary of the open cage scoring an empty net goal and then Cale Makar added another in the final minute to arrive at the 5-2 final for Colorado.

Takeaways

It wasn’t just a notable night for Ross Colton to get on the scoresheet with an assist but it was also the first time he’s eclipsed 12 minutes of ice time in the last six games. His usage will be very interesting to monitor down the stretch as the coaching staff continues to try and find a role for Colton.

Coming up empty on the power play once again and going 0/4 is bad enough but giving up their fourth shorthanded goal on the season adds insult to injury. It’s clearly not bad enough to lead to losses for now but it’s an issue and storyline that’s not going away. The problem is not just a matter of bad luck, poor execution, natural variance or whatever the excuse du jour is.