Avalanche 1 - 3 Kings
Final
  for this game

Kings hold off Avalanche

Apr 5, 2015 - 5:31 AM Los Angeles, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Marian Gaborik, Alec Martinez and Dwight King each scored to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

Jonathan Quick stopped nine shots while Robyn Regehr and Jeff Carter each posted two assists for the Kings, who have won their past two.

"We did a good job of clogging up the neutral zone; we took away some time and space, had a few breakdowns here and there and Quickie came up huge for us," said Martinez. "We definitely can play better hockey, but I'm obviously happy with the outcome."

Los Angeles moved back into the final wild card spot in the Western Conference with 92 points. Winnipeg also has 92 points, but Los Angeles holds the tiebreaker and both teams have four games to play. Also, the Kings are one point behind Calgary for third place in the Pacific Division.

Ryan O'Reilly scored the only goal of the game for the Avalanche, who have lost three of their last four. Semyon Varlamov allowed all three goals on 26 shots.

Colorado was eliminated from playoff contention earlier on Saturday when Winnipeg defeated Vancouver.

"Well obviously we're all disappointed," said Colorado head coach Patrick Roy. "I'm happy with the overall effort from our team, we were very resilient. But it's not a good feeling to know our season is ending soon."

The Kings took a 1-0 lead with 6:04 left in the first period as Carter rushed down the middle and got a shot on net that was stopped, but the rebound came out to the left wing and King buried it for his 12th of the season.

Colorado tied the game just 1:12 into the second as Gabriel Landeskog blasted a shot on net from the left wing that Quick got a glove on, but the puck got behind him and O'Reilly pushed it in.

Los Angeles, though, grabbed the lead back halfway through the second after Martinez whipped in a wrister from the right side for his sixth of the season.

The Kings put the game away with 1:56 to play when Gaborik muscled his way through the neutral zone and lasered in a wrister from the left wing.

Game Notes

Los Angeles plays its next three games on the road starting Monday in Vancouver ... Colorado, which finished the road portion of its season with a 16-16-9 mark, hosts Nashville on Tuesday ... There was just one penalty in the game, a slashing call on Los Angeles' Justin Williams early in the first period.






Related News