LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kiefer Sherwood scored his first goal in nearly three years, Mikko Rantanen scored a power-play goal and the Colorado Avalanche stayed hot with a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Devon Toews also scored for the Avalanche, which have won five straight and are 10-0-1 in their last 11 games. Darcy Kuemper made 40 saves as Colorado won the second straight game after beating Anaheim 2-0 on Wednesday.
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Anze Kopitar had a power-play goal and Jonathan Quick made 23 saves for the Kings, who have lost three in a row.
Los Angeles will play 10 of its next 11 games on the road, returning home Feb. 15 against Edmonton in a game that was postponed from December due to concerns over cross-border travel.
Sherwood made it 2-0 at 3:06 of the second period, turning around for a wrist shot on a loose puck in the right circle to score his first goal of the season. He hadn’t scored since March 26, 2019, when Sherwood was a rookie with the Ducks – going 38 games over the past four seasons without finding the back of the net.
Kopitar brought the Kings back to 2-1 on the power play at 8:58, scoring coolly into an open net after Kuemper pulled out of play trying to cut the angle for Alex Iafallo. Of Kopitar’s team-leading 36 points this season, 12 have come on the power play, where he has four goals and eight assists.
Aube-Kubel left the penalty area at the right moment, collecting Logan O’Connor’s pass to score on a breakaway and restore a two-goal lead at 4:11 of the third.
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Toews scored an empty net with 1:35 left.
After ending his three-game streak in Wednesday’s 2-0 win at Anaheim, Rantanen came back midway through the first period, flipping Nathan MacKinnon’s shot on the power play to take a 1-0 lead. Rantanen has five goals and two assists in his last five games.
The penalty kill for Los Angeles allowed a goal for the fourth straight game. Drew Doughty had a chance to clear the puck, but his weak effort was held in the zone, preventing the Kings from making a line change. That group was eventually exhausted by Colorado’s dangerous first power play unit.
BACK ON HER
Kings C Quinton Byfield, the No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft, made his season debut. Byfield was expected to kick the team out of training camp before breaking his ankle in a pre-season game on Oct. 5, and his return was further delayed after testing positive for COVID-19 in late December.
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NOTES: Colorado is 15-1-1 in its last 17 games. … Rantanen has also had an assist, giving him five goals and three assists in his last five games. … Avalanche D Tyson Jost played his 300th career game. … Kings D Mikey Anderson played his 100th game.
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