Avalanche score nine, defeat Kings with seventh straight win

DENVER --Nathan MacKinnon had a hat trick and tied his NHL career high with five points to help the Colorado Avalanche win their seventh straight game, 9-3 against the Los Angeles Kings at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Cale Makar had a goal and three assists, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Valeri Nichushkin each had two goals, and Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves for the Avalanche (53-14-6), who set franchise records for wins in a regular season and home wins in a season (29).
"I loved our first period," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "We were the aggressors, we were on our toes, our forecheck was rolling. O-zone play, we were seeing what we talked about this morning, and what we wanted to do on the defending side of it, we were tight."
The Avalanche lead the NHL with 112 points, two points more than the Florida Panthers.
Adrian Kempe, Alex Iafallo, and Phillip Danault scored for the Kings (39-27-10), who have lost four of five.
"We didn't have anything at the beginning of the night," Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. "We fell behind three and you can't play that way against this team. We found some legs in the second, but then we made a lot of mistakes and it ended up in the back of the net. There's no other way of painting it."

Jonathan Quick allowed three goals on 10 shots before being pulled 10:15 into the first period. Cal Petersen made 19 saves in relief.
"Definitely not the performance you want tonight, especially at this time of year," Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. "But we've got to look at this one and correct stuff and make sure this is not going to repeat, because it is crunch time for our team."
Los Angeles remained third in the Pacific Division, two points behind the second-place Edmonton Oilers.
Aube-Kubel scored on a wrist shot from the right circle to give Colorado a 1-0 lead at 2:54 of the first period.
"I thought with our first period, we came [out] so strong," Aube-Kubel said. "Maybe we slacked for like five minutes in the second period, and that's where they got their momentum, got their first goal and second goal. But from there I think we just took control of the game."
Nichushkin beat Quick with backhand after receiving a bump pass from Bowen Byram to make it 2-0 at 3:33.

MacKinnon scored a power-play goal on a one-timer from the right circle to push the lead to 3-0 at 10:15.
Aube-Kubel beat Petersen with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle 41 seconds later to make it 4-0 at 10:56.
"They came out strong and we didn't match their intensity," Kopitar said. "Next thing you know we were down 4-0. Obviously it was a start we can't afford."
Kempe collected a rebound off Arthur Kaliyev's point shot and scored his 33rd goal of the season to make it 4-1 at 1:43 of the second period. Kempe has five goals in the past six games.
Iafallo closed the gap to 4-2 after tipping a point shot from Jordan Spence at 10:40 but Andre Burakovsky made it 5-2 with a one-timer from the right circle at 13:05.
Makar extended the lead to 6-2 with a power-play goal from the right circle at 18:22.

MacKinnon made it 7-2 on a breakaway at 1:18 of the third period and Nichushkin pushed it to 8-2 at 6:11.
MacKinnon completed his third NHL hat trick for a 9-2 lead at 9:52 before Danault made it 9-3 at 15:09.
"I wanted to be done," MacKinnon said. "I asked [Bednar],' I'm like, 'I don't really want to. I'm good. I'll play tomorrow [against the New Jersey Devils].' I was just chilling, but good bounce and I just kind of whacked at it. I was blessed tonight, for sure."
NOTES:Nichushkin became the seventh Avalanche player to score at least 20 goals (Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, MacKinnon, Makar, Burakovsky), their most in a single season since relocating to Colorado. … The Avalanche won 52 games in 2013-14 and 2000-01 and won 28 home games in 2017-18 and 2000-01. … Rantanen had an assist for his 87th point to tie his NHL career high from 2018-19. … MacKinnon has 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in a five-game point streak. … MacKinnon has scored five points in an NHL game three other times, the most recent in a 7-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 6 (one goal, four assists). … Makar's goal was the 60th by an Avalanche defenseman this season. The last team to accomplish that was the Washington Capitals in 1993-94 (62). … Makar's 53 assists passed Ray Bourque (52, 2000-01) for the second most by an Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques defenseman behind Steve Duchesne (62, 1992-93). … Colorado swept the season series 3-0-0, with a 16-4 goal differential.