Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist to extend his home point streak to 25 games, Logan O’Connor scored twice, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the slumping Los Angeles Kings 5-1 in Denver on Friday night.
MacKinnon moved past Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov for the NHL lead in scoring with 84 points. He finished January with 12 goals and 14 assists.
Cale Makar also had a goal, Ross Colton added two assists and Alexandar Georgiev turned away 26 shots for Colorado, which heads into a nine-day break with three straight wins.
Kevin Fiala scored, Cam Talbot had nine saves on 12 shots before giving way to David Rittich, who turned away 17 shots for Los Angeles. The Kings are 2-8-5 in their last 15 games.
O’Connor got the Avalanche started when he skated into the Los Angeles zone to the top of the left circle and snapped a shot past Talbot on the far side at 7:44 of the first period.
He made it 2-0 when he beat Talbot again at 14:55 of the first. It was his 13th of the season, which is a career high.
MacKinnon made it 3-0 when he skated to the right circle and sent a shot on net that went off the bottom of Talbot’s blocker and in at 18:30. It was his 31st of the season.
Los Angeles got one back on the power play early in the second period when Fiala’s one-timer went through a screen and over Georgiev’s left shoulder at 6:20. It was his 12th goal of the season.
The Avalanche failed to take advantage of Fiala’s high-sticking double minor, but they did strike minutes later when Josh Manson skated in on Talbot and beat him high from close in at 11:44, his sixth goal of the season.
Colorado put it away on the power play in the first minute of the third period. Just six seconds after Adrian Kempe went off for tripping, Makar’s blast from the point at 31 seconds gave the Avalanche a four-goal lead.
It was his 12th of the season.
–Field Level Media