Denver, Colorado — The Los Angeles Kings (40-22-9) were defeated by the Colorado Avalanche (45-25-3) in a lopsided 4-0 affair at Ball Arena on Thursday, March 27.
Despite the loss, the Kings still remained in firm contention for the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a second place standing in the Pacific Division with the help of the Edmonton Oilers’ 6-1 defeat against the Seattle Kraken on the same day.
Going into the game, the Kings were facing a redhot Avalanche team that — similarly to Los Angeles — have a very strong record at home, not dropping a game in Denver since January 22nd.
Notably, LA Kings defenseman Drew Doughty was also heading to Ball Arena to play his 1200th career regular season game, joining four other active defensemen Ryan Suter (1,517 games played), Brent Burns (1,486 gp), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (1,313 gp), and Jack Johnson (1,225 gp).
In the first period, the Kings faced off with the Avalanche, matching them in the faceoffs and maintaining their defensive fronts throughout the first twenty minutes. Los Angeles took one penalty — center Phillip Danault holding another player — while Colorado took two different penalties — interference and cross-checking, granting the Kings two power play opportunities to jumpstart their offense. Both did not pan out.
As the second period rolled around, the Avalanche began the scoring when right wing Logan O’Connor fired a snap shot into the LA net to give the Avalanche their first lead of the night, 1-0. Not long after, Avalanche center Martin Necas added to the lead with a backhand shot that got behind Kings’ goaltender Darcy Kuemper to make it, 2-0. Los Angeles left wing Warren Foegele took an interference penalty which gave Colorado another power play, and Necas scored again for the Avalanche with a slap shot to blow open the lead, 3-0.
As the Kings tried to play catch up during the remainder of the second period, they ultimately could not come up with an answer for their offense, despite earning another power play.
The third period saw Los Angeles desperately try to spark their offense, yet they took another penalty — tripping by defenseman Mikey Anderson — which granted Colorado another power play. This time, Avalanche left wing Jonathan Drouin converted on a one-timer from the left side of the Kings net to balloon the lead, 4-0. While the Kings were even with the Avalanche on faceoffs, the defense by Colorado shined brightest during this match with 15 blocked shots, compared to the Kings’ eight shots blocked.
While the road loss against one of the top Stanley Cup contenders was humbling, Los Angeles heads back to home ice with an opportunity to bounce back against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, March 29th.
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