Final
Avalanche earn first home victory with win over Kings
Oct 31, 2011 - 4:04 AM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Matt Duchene scored the decisive goal early in the third period and the Colorado Avalanche held on to beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2.Milan Hejduk and Chuck Kobasew also lit the lamp for Colorado, which notched its first home win of the season. The Avalanche, who lead the NHL in road victories (6-1-0), had been outscored 9-2 in dropping their first three games at Pepsi Center.
"Despite not getting a lot of shots, we made them count when we had to and our goaltender played well and our back end played awesome. It was a good team victory," Duchene said.
Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves, including 14 during the second period.
Anze Kopitar and Scott Parse each had power-play goals for the Kings, while Jonathan Quick stopped only 13 shots. Los Angeles has dropped three of four.
Duchene broke a 2-2 tie 1:52 into the third, using Kings defenseman Drew Doughty as a screen and firing the puck into the top right corner of the net.
"He came down with a lot of speed. He made a great shot," Quick said. "He put it in a great spot. I don't think me or the defenseman could have played it any differently. He made a really good shot."
Colorado held on for its first regulation home win since January 24 despite Los Angeles having a 6-on-4 advantage for the final 46 seconds of the game.
After not scoring on consecutive power plays, the Avalanche opened the scoring shorthanded when Kobasew scored on a wraparound at the 6:55 mark of the first period.
Still on the man advantage, Parse batted a puck out of the air 27 seconds later to pull the Kings even.
Hejduk and Kopitar exchanged power-play goals in the middle stanza.
Game Notes
Colorado had lost five straight in the series...Quick (7-1-0) suffered his first loss in nine career games against the Avalanche...David Jones and Kyle Quincey each collected two assists for Colorado...Jarret Stoll's assist in the first period gave the Los Angeles forward 299 career points.
- LOS ANGELES: 2
COLORADO: 3
Final
Oct 30 10:22 PM - LOS ANGELES: 2
COLORADO: 2
End of 2nd
Oct 30 9:32 PM - Los Angeles Power-Play Goal - Anze Kopitar (6), from Dustin Brown at 18:44.
Kings 2, Avalanche 2 2nd - 1:16Oct 30 9:30 PM - LOS ANGELES: 1
COLORADO: 1
End of 1st
Oct 30 8:40 PM - Los Angeles Power-Play Goal - Scott Parse (2), from Jarret Stoll at 7:22.
Kings 1, Avalanche 1 1st - 12:38Oct 30 8:22 PM - Colorado Short-Handed Goal - Chuck Kobasew (2), from Gabriel Landeskog at 6:55.
Kings 0, Avalanche 1 1st - 13:05Oct 30 8:21 PM - LOS ANGELES: 0
COLORADO: 0
1st Period - 20:00
Oct 30 8:07 PM
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