The Kings got back into the win column on Sunday evening with a 4-1 victory over the Central Division leading Colorado Avalanche. In their second of three matchups against the Avalanche this season, the Kings earned sweet revenge after dropping the season opener to Colorado.
The Avalanche struck first to take a 1-0 lead with 7:32 remaining in the first period. Good puck movement upon entering the Kings' zone led to an open Josh Manson in the slot, scoring his first goal of the season. No more offense would come in the first 20 minutes of the game and each team had recorded six shots.
The game remained low scoring through the middle 20 minutes as the puck found the back of the net just once. Thankfully that one instance came in favor of the Kings. Quinton Byfield notched his fifth goal of the season by going to the net on a zone entry and tipped in a Mikey Anderson one-timer.
It wasn’t until the third period where the Kings took over the game. In a period where the Kings outshot the Avalanche 23-5, the Kings found the back of the net three times and kept the Avalanche off the scoresheet. The eventual game-winning goal came off of a beautiful offensive zone sequence started by Drew Doughty. Doughty, who didn’t pick up an assist on the play found Anze Kopitar and the captain connected with Adrian Kempe, who fed Byfield backdoor for his second goal of the game. Notably, with the assist on the Byfield goal, Kopitar surpassed Marcel Dionne for the all-time lead in franchise history in assists with 758. Also noteworthy, Byfield surpassed his previous single season career high in goals with his sixth tally on the year.
Up 2-1 after the Byfield goal, Trevor Moore extended the Kings lead just 56 seconds later making it 3-1. After Carl Grundstrom caused an Avalanche turnover, Moore picked the short-side high corner off of the goalies mask and into the net. Moore now leads the Kings in goals with 12.
An empty net goal from Doughty assisted by Cam Talbot sealed the Kings victory.
Talbot stopped 20 shots and improved his record to 11-4-1 on the season.
