Avalanche win Game 4, sweep Kings in Western Conference 1st Round

LOS ANGELES -- Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist, and the Colorado Avalanche completed a sweep of the Los Angeles Kings with a 5-1 win in Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday.

“I didn’t see any frustration from him at all, like when it comes to not producing through the first three games that he would normally produce, and that kind of tells me where our team is at,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said of MacKinnon.

Cale Makar, Nicolas Roy and Devon Toews also scored for the Avalanche, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central Division and Western Conference. Gabriel Landeskog had two assists, and Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves.

“It’s a good test for us,” said Makar, who scored for the second straight game. “That’s a stingy defensive team over there that has a lot of offensive threats, and we found different ways to be able to shut them down.”

Colorado will play either the Dallas Stars or Minnesota Wild in the second round. That series is tied 2-2 after the Wild’s 3-2 overtime win on Saturday.

“When you’re hoping for obviously a deep and long run, the least amount of games you can play are definitely going to be a benefit,” Wedgewood said. “Home ice helps. You’re going to be sleeping in your bed for a couple extra nights. … Little extra time to prepare and heal up is obviously going to pay off, and obviously get ready for whoever comes next.”

Joel Edmundson scored the lone goal for the Kings, who were the second wild card from the West. Anton Forsberg made 27 saves.

“I mean, Games 1-3 could have gone either way. I thought we had a real chance in Game 2 and 3, didn’t get it done," Los Angeles forward Trevor Moore said. "Credit to them. They’ve obviously been the best team all year in the League, so close wasn’t good enough."

Anze Kopitar played the final game of his 20-season career with the Kings. The 38-year-old center had announced on Sept. 18 that the 2025-26 season would be his last in the NHL. Kopitar helped Los Angeles win the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014, and became the franchise's all-time leader in points (1,316) on March 14. He replaced Dustin Brown as captain prior to the 2016-17 season.

“No one’s bigger than the team, and ‘Kopi’ showed that every single day that I was here, everyone was the same,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “These things that go by the wayside, that star players in sports today, a lot of them don’t do anymore, 'Kopi' is a throwback and a classy, classy human being.”

MacKinnon gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead while on a power play at 13:13 of the first period. Nazem Kadri fed a cross-ice pass to MacKinnon in the left face-off circle, where he put a one-timer on net that trickled through Forsberg's pads.

It was the first power-play goal of the series for Colorado, which had been 0-for-9 over the first three games.

“I just think you’re not going to be able to completely shut him down all the time, and when you need something big to happen, those players tend to show up, as he did tonight,” Bednar said.

Makar made it 2-0 at 5:48 of the second period. He skated in from the blue line past Kings forward Taylor Ward into the right circle and beat Forsberg with a wrist shot to the glove side.

Edmundson cut the deficit to 2-1 at 13:43 when his wrist shot from the left circle squeaked through Wedgewood.

It was the second even-strength goal of the series for Los Angeles, which finished with five total goals in the series.

“I think when you talk about the Avalanche, a lot of it goes by how much they score and how good of players they have,” Smith said. “They didn’t give us a breakaway in the series, other than a short-handed one. They never gave us a 2-on-1, other than a partial 2-on-1. That’s incredible to do for four games.”

Bednar said: “When you talk about championship teams, it’s the defending that sort of pushes you over the top, and I thought we were committed to that from the drop of the puck in Game 1 until the buzzer went in Game 4."

Roy pushed the lead to 3-1 at 3:13 of the third after Artturi Lehkonen caught a pass from Sam Malinski in stride into the offensive zone. Lehkonen then took the initial shot, and Roy put the rebound through Forsberg's five-hole as he crashed the net.

Toews increased it to 4-1 at 6:01 with a wrist shot through a screen from the left circle.

“They played us really well defensively, and it felt like these last couple games we did a better job at finding different ways to get to the net,” Makar said. “For us, again, it’s a lot of internal stuff. We got to make sure that we’re working together as a team, and there’s no individual in here, that’s for sure.”

MacKinnon scored an empty-net goal at 14:22 to secure the 5-1 final.

NOTES: The Avalanche swept a best-of-7 series for the sixth time in franchise history (also 2022 Western Conference Final, 2022 First Round, 2021 Stanley Cup First Round, 2001 Western Conference Quarterfinals and 1996 Stanley Cup Final). ... MacKinnon had at least three points in a best-of-7 series-clinching game for the fourth time in his career. Only five players in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1968) have done so more: Wayne Gretzky (15), Mark Messier (10), Jari Kurri (seven), Mario Lemieux (five) and Glenn Anderson (five). ... Wedgewood had a .950 save percentage and 1.21 goals-against average in the series. His five goals against are the second-fewest by an Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques goaltender in a best-of-7 series (minimum four games). The only goaltenders to allow fewer are Philipp Grubauer (four in 2020 Western Conference First Round against the Arizona Coyotes) and Patrick Roy (four in 1996 Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers). ... The Kings have lost eight straight playoff games.