Bad night at the office for the Avalanche, which came out flying against the but went on to lose 7-1 at the on Thursday. The game story is here. The notebook leads with the return of goalie .
THREE STARS
- Anze Kopitar. The Kings captain had four goals on a game-high seven shots.
- Tobias Rieder. Two goals for the L.A. forward.
- Drew Doughty. Kings D-man was plus-4 in a game-high 23:54.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
Avalanche defenseman delivered a career-high 15 hits, an club record and the most by any NHL player in a single game since 2005-06.
NEXT UP
Vegas, Saturday at the Pepsi Center, 1 p.m.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
Rare PPG. The Kings took a 3-1 lead on Kopitar’s power-play goal late in first period. It was just the ninth power-play goal the Avs allowed at home this season. Colorado is 107-for-116 (92.2 percent) in penalty killing at home, tops in the league.
Still seventh. The Avs remained in the first of two Western Conference wild-card playoff spots, the No. 7 seed overall. They are tied with Anaheim with 88 points but Colorado owns the tiebreaker (regulation/overtime wins, ROW). The Avs have 39 ROW, the Ducks 34.
Streaks extended. assisted on the Avs’ goal to extend his career-best points streak to 14. That’s the NHL’s longest active points streak and third longest this season behind the Devils’ Taylor Hall (19) and the Jets’ Patrik Laine (15). Itap the longest points streak by an Avs player since Paul Stastny (20) in 2006-07.
— scored the Avs’ goal to extended his point streak to eight games, and he also became the fourth Finnish player to produce 80 points in a season, joining Jari Kurri, Teemu Selanne and Olli Jokinen.
Bad night for the , who lose 7-1 to
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
Big month. MacKinnon and Rantanten each have 21 points in March, tied for the league lead.
The bottom line: The Avs have eight remaining games, and if they go 4-4 they will finish with 96 points — exactly twice the amount they ended with last season (48). Question is, will 96 points be enough for a playoff spot?
