Royal pain to Avs
Four goals from captain Kopitar help Los Angeles crush, cool off Colorado
Avalanche star center Nathan MacKinnon nearly scored twice during his first shift, and his line produced the game’s first goal soon thereafter. When right winger Mikko Rantanen scored his 27th goal of the season at 3:33 of the first period Thursday night, Colorado was buzzing, outshooting the Los Angeles Kings 5-1.
It was a nightmare the rest of the way for the Avs, who fell 7-1 at the Pepsi Center in a rare loss at home and a costly one in their pursuit of a playoff berth.
“We had a good first five (minutes) and usually that’s the key for us,” MacKinnon said. “If we get the first one, we’re in good shape. But we fell apart, got flat and we gave them a lot of great opportunities that they’re not going to miss. It was a tough night.”
The Avs had 10 giveaways and just three blocked shots. The Kings had just one giveaway and 11 blocked shots.
“Nights like this will happen,” Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson said. “You don’t want it to happen at this time of the season, but we play (Vegas) in less than 48 hours. We’ll fix what we did wrong and have a short memory and get ready for the next game.”
The Kings, who received four goals from captain Anze Kopitar and two others from Tobias Rieder, climbed to 89 points — one point ahead of Colorado. Los Angeles also is a point ahead of Anaheim for third in the Pacific Division race, and the Avs remain in the first of two Western Conference wildcard slots by virtue of their tiebreaker against the Ducks, who occupy the conference’s eighth and final playoff position.
St. Louis (85 points) and Dallas (84) are also in the chase, and the Blues have a game in hand over the Avs, Ducks and Stars, and two games in hand over the Kings.
With a victory, the Avs would have replaced Minnesota for third place in the Central Division (winning the tiebreaker with the Wild). The top three teams from the Pacific and Central divisions make it to the playoffs, plus two wild-card teams. Colorado has eight remaining games, including a rematch with the Kings on April 2 in Los Angeles.
Kopitar scored his 30th goal of the season at 4:28 of the first period to tie it 1-1. He gave the Kings a 3-1 lead with a power-play goal at 19:44 of the period and completed his hat trick at 12:27 of the second period, extending L.A.’s lead to 5-1. At that point, Avs coach Jared Bednar pulled goalie Semyon Varlamov for Jonathan Bernier. Kopitar’s fourth goal came at 3:28 of the third period.
Varlamov, the hero in Tuesday’s 5-1 win at Chicago, allowed five goals on 20 shots in his 19th consecutive appearance.
“I liked our first handful of shifts and the way we came out as the aggressors, and we were on our toes,” Bednar said. “When they scored (their third goal), I felt like we fragmented as a team for the first time in a long time, and got away from the way we need to play. I think our guys knew the meaning of this game and how important it was — not that we haven’t been playing important games all along — but that’s a lesson for us. You face a little adversity in the game and you have to trust your structure and your details and your work ethic. We got away from that and became more individualized and it just kept turning for us.”