Avalanche defeat Kings, keep pace in race for first in West

LOS ANGELES -- Devon Toews scored two goals, and the Colorado Avalanche kept pace in the race for first place in the Honda West Division with a 3-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on Saturday.

Andre Burakovsky extended his point streak to five games with two assists, and Cale Makar had a goal and an assist and for the Avalanche (36-13-4), who won 3-2 here Friday. Jonas Johansson made 16 saves.
Colorado is four points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for first in the Honda West Division with one game in hand. The Avalanche and Golden Knights will play at Vegas on Monday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN, ATTSN-RM, ALT, NHL.TV).
"First meeting we had in the beginning of the year [the message] was we're gunning for first," Toews said. "That's our goal, that's what we expect, and we have three games left and we have a chance to do it. It started with these two games in L.A. here, putting ourselves in a position to be able to do that. We got to go one game at a time, but now we got the big one. We're ready for it, we're prepared, and it should be a fun one."
The Avalanche, Golden Knights, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues have the four Stanley Cup Playoff berths from the eight-team division. Colorado leads third-place Minnesota by one point.
Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon missed a second straight game because of a lower-body injury.
Sean Walker had a goal and an assist, and Rasmus Kupari scored his first NHL goal for the Kings (21-26-6), who have been eliminated from playoff contention. Cal Petersen made 27 saves.
"We made a few mistakes, and against teams like that with their ability to score, they make you pay, but the character and the drive, there's nothing there to question," Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. "Our guys showed up with it tonight and they pushed, they played hard to a man right through the whole lineup."
Toews put Colorado ahead 3-1 at 9:45 of the second period on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle. It was the defenseman's first multigoal game in the NHL.
"I take a lot of pride in being able to contribute whichever way," said Toews, who has scored an NHL career-high nine goals. "Some nights it's defensively, some nights it's offensively, and I've been fortunate to be on the offensive side of it a little bit more this year with those opportunities playing with Nate and [Gabriel Landeskog] and Mikko [Rantanen] a lot out there."

Makar had the primary assist on Toews' second goal for his second straight multipoint game. The defenseman has scored eight points (three goals, five assists) in the past six games.
Kupari scored on a wrist shot from the left circle through traffic two seconds after a power play expired to cut it to 3-2 at 5:21 of the third period. It was the fourth NHL game for the forward, who was selected by Los Angeles with the No. 20 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.
"Obviously a great feeling to score my first NHL goal, and I got to give credit to Lias [Andersson] for his great pass," Kupari said. "I got time to take that puck and kind of take a look where's the hole. Yeah, it was great."

Toews gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 4:46 of the first period when he scored on a wrist shot from the left circle after Kupari failed to clear the puck.
Makar made it 2-0 at 10:31 with a slap shot through traffic on the power play.
Burakovsky had an assist on each of Colorado's first-period goals. He has scored eight points (three goals, five assists) during his streak. It was his second straight game with two assists.
Walker scored at 13:58 to make it 2-1. Gabriel Vilardi's pass went off the left skate of Walker but deflected into his path for a wrist shot under Johansson's left arm.
NOTES: Avalanche forward Carl Soderberg did not play because of tightness in his lower back. Jayson Menga replaced Soderberg on the fourth line and had four hits and one blocked shot in 9:22. … Kupari is the fourth Kings player to score his first NHL goal this season, joining Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Tobias Bjornfot and Arthur Kaliyev. … Walker has two goals and four assists during a three-game point streak. … It was Makar's 11th multipoint game this season. ... The Avalanche and Kings will play each other the final two regular-season games for each team at Colorado on Wednesday and Thursday.