Artturi Lehkonen collected one goal and one assist while pacing Colorado to a 4-2 road victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, putting the Avalanche on the verge of sweeping their Western Conference first-round playoff series.
Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar and Brock Nelson also scored for the Avalanche, who will look to close out the best-of-seven series when they play Game 4 on Sunday in Los Angeles.
Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves.
“There can be no complacency this time of year,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “You have to have a killer instinct. You have to go out and expect you’ll play your best game.
“We knew we’d have to be really good tonight to win. We knew we had to capitalize better on our chances than in Game 1 and Game 2. You have to be dialed in as much as you ever have at this time of year.”
Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe tallied for the Kings, who have scored only four goals in the series’ three games.
“It’s the playoffs, it’s hard to score 5-on-5,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “If you look at the analytics and what we’re creating and what we created tonight, it’s a big number. In the regular season, we scored at a really, really good rate. We’re getting those looks, we’re just not capitalizing.”
Los Angeles goalie Anton Forsberg stopped 19 shots, and Alex Laferriere collected two assists.
Makar broke a 1-1 tie at 12:12 of the second period by finding the twine with a long wrist shot through the screen in front of the goalie for his first goal of the series.
Lehkonen’s third-period short-handed goal doubled the Avalanche’s lead. Taking advantage of Kempe fanning on a one-timer, Lehkonen sped away on a 2-on-1 rush and tallied when his pass attempt deflected off a defender’s skate and through Forsberg’s legs with 12:21 remaining.
Kempe made amends by converting a slick redirect for a power-play goal with 4:03 to go.
However, Nelson’s empty-net goal two minutes later rounded out the scoring for Colorado, which was the NHL’s top team during the regular season.
The loss leaves Los Angeles on the cusp of being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. The Kings have lost six straight opening-round series, and they haven’t captured a series since winning the Stanley Cup in 2014.
Landeskog opened the scoring with a fortuitous bounce at 5:29 of the first period. His long shot went wide of the goal but banked off the end boards and into the net off Forsberg’s skate.
The Kings drew even at 5:55 of the second period. Quinton Byfield sent the puck to the net off the rush and it ricocheted off Moore and into the cage to make it a 1-1 game.
The victory came at a cost for the Avalanche, as defenseman Josh Manson left the contest in the second period due to an upper-body injury.
Looking ahead to Sunday, Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said, “Just one game, at home, must-win game. Everyone’s going to give everything they’ve got. Got to win that one and then hopefully get to go back to Denver.”
–Field Level Media
