Adrian Kempe and Phillip Danault scored two goals each for the Los Angeles Kings in a 5-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night in Denver.

Anze Kopitar had three assists, Gabriel Vilardi scored and Joonas Korpisalo made 28 saves for the Kings, who won their season-high fifth game in a row.

Evan Rodrigues and Nathan MacKinnon scored and Alexandar Georgiev stopped 26 shots for the Avalanche, who have lost four of their past five games (1-3-1).

The Kings scored on their first shot to take a 1-0 lead at 8:37 of the first period.

Los Angeles defenseman Matt Roy chipped the puck up the wall in his own zone to Kopitar, springing him loose on a two-on-one with Kempe, who scored with a one-timer off Kopitar’s feed.

Vilardi extended the lead to 2-0 at 17:10 of the first period.

Kopitar dug the puck out of the corner and made a short pass to Vilardi at the bottom of the left circle. Vilardi stopped the puck, rotated his feet and scored nearside from a sharp angle.

Rodrigues scored on a deflection to cut the gap to 2-1 at 14:59 of the second period.

Kempe netted his 32nd goal of the season with a backhand from the slot 24 seconds into the third period to make it 3-1.

The Avalanche capitalized on their third power play when MacKinnon scored with a wrist shot to make it 3-2 at 4:24.

The Kings answered 15 seconds later when Danault scored with a deflection in front of the net off a faceoff to make it 4-2.

Danault scored the 100th goal of his NHL career and his 18th of the season with the net empty to make it 5-2 with 2:35 remaining.

Kevin Fiala recorded his 46th assist of the season on Danault’s first goal, but he was limited in the third period after making knee-to-knee contact with Colorado’s Andrew Cogliano in the second period. Fiala leads Los Angeles with 68 points.

–Field Level Media

Robert Thomas scored a goal and added an assist to lead the St. Louis Blues past the visiting San Jose Sharks 4-2 Thursday.

Torey Krug, Sammy Blais and Jakub Vrana also scored for the Blues, who won for just the second time in their last 10 games.

Pavel Buchnevich had two assists for St. Louis and Jordan Binnington made 32 saves to earn his first victory since Feb. 16.

Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks, who are 2-9-1 in their last 12 games. Alex Barabanov had two assists and Kaapo Kahkonen made 26 saves.

The Sharks outshot the Blues 15-9 in the first period and took a 1-0 lead at the 10:23 mark.

Barabanov faked a shot from the left circle, then slid a pass to Karlsson at the right circle — and Karlsson scored before Binnington could slide over.

That was Karlsson’s 20th goal and 83rd point of the season, setting a new career-high point total.

Krug tied the game 1-1 by converting a three-on-two break with 7:29 left in the period. Thomas rushed the puck up the right wing, Alexey Toropchenko drove the net from the left wing and Krug stepped in as the trailer to score.

The Blues took a 2-1 lead midway in the second period. Colton Parayko dove in the neutral zone to tip the rolling puck ahead to Blais, who broke to beat Kahkonen.

The Sharks tied the game 2-2 with 5:29 left in the period. Barabanov stickhandled through the middle of the Blues zone and set up Hertl’s blast from the slot.

Vrana scored 2:53 into the third period to put the Blues up 3-2. After Buchnevich tried to jam the puck in at the right post, Vrana pushed the puck behind Kahkonen and off Karlsson.

Thomas scored a power-play goal to expand the Blues lead to 4-2 with 4:58 left. Brandon Saad made the centering pass from behind the net and Thomas ripped a one-time shot from the right faceoff dot.

–Field Level Media

Alec Martinez chipped in the game-winning marker with a head-first dive in overtime as the Vegas Golden Knights beat the host Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Thursday night.

After the Lightning tied it with two goals in the closing 2:07, Vegas center Jack Eichel sent a shot from the slot that was partially stopped by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (17 saves).

As it trickled near the goal line, Martinez dove in and got a piece of the puck for his second goal as the Knights won for the fourth time in five games.

Keegan Kolesar, William Karlsson and Chandler Stephenson also scored as Vegas swept the season series from Tampa Bay and moved to 19-8-2 against the Eastern Conference.

With Adin Hill listed as day to day, Jonathan Quick stopped 34 shots in his second start and second win for the club.

Brayden Point’s two goals tied his career-high 41 set in the 2018-19 season. He also had an assist.

On Point’s 40th tally, Nikita Kucherov – who also had a goal — dished the primary assist to stretch his club-record home point streak to 23 games.

Kucherov added another helper on Point’s last-minute, tying goal. Mikhail Sergachev had two assists.

The Lightning played their second game without star defenseman Victor Hedman (undisclosed).

The visitors’ fourth line caught the Lightning in a two-on-one rush led by Teddy Blueger just 27 seconds into the match. He found Kolesar on the back post, leading to an easy tap-in for the right winger’s seventh goal.

But Point evened the game at 1-1 as the Lightning outshot Vegas 10-4 in the frame.

At 2:27 of the third while being fouled by Sergachev on a breakaway, Karlsson got enough of the puck to push it in for his 12th goal.

His short-handed tally was the eighth by Vegas and 11th allowed by the Lightning, which tied Tampa Bay with Vancouver and Detroit for the most in the league.

Just over three minutes later, Shea Theodore blistered a one-timer that knuckled its way, hit Stephenson and went in for the third-line center’s 13th tally for a 3-1 lead.

With Vasilevskiy off for the extra skater, Kucherov rocketed his 26th goal at 17:53. Point tied it on a six-on-four power play with 28 seconds left.

–Field Level Media

Pyotr Kochetkov returned from the minor leagues and made 19 saves as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 1-0 on Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.

Andrei Svechnikov scored slightly more than two minutes into the game and the tally held up for the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes.

Kochetkov was in the Carolina net for the first time since Jan. 15 after he was summoned from the American Hockey League following an injury to Antti Raanta earlier this week.

Carolina has a four-game winning streak and has won nine of its last 11 (9-2-0).

The Hurricanes have secured shutouts in three of their last four home games. The Flyers didn’t have a power play until less than nine minutes to play in the game.

Kochetkov stopped Joel Farabee’s breakaway in the second period after a Carolina defenseman fell to the ice in the neutral zone.

Philadelphia goalie Felix Sandstrom, who had appeared in just two Flyers games since Christmas, made 28 saves. His record dipped to 1-9-1 this season and 1-13-2 for his two-year career.

The Flyers dropped to 1-5-1 in their last seven games.

Right winger Tyson Foerster, a 2020 first-round draft pick, made his NHL debut for the Flyers. Teammate Elliot Desnoyers was in his third game of the season.

Svechnikov opened the scoring on a power play 2:09 into the game. He waited in the slot and converted off Martin Necas’ pass for his 23rd goal of the season.

The Hurricanes had three power plays in the first period, but just six total shots on goal. Only one of those shots came in an even-strength situation.

Carolina couldn’t solve Sandstrom in the second period despite 15 shots. Another chance was thwarted when Svechnikov’s rebound attempt into what looked like an open net was diverted by Foerster’s block.

The Flyers were without defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who played last season for Carolina, because of a two-game suspension handed out by the NHL following Tuesday night’s spearing incident at Tampa Bay.

–Field Level Media