Twitter can be a distraction from your job and even a detriment to your everyday life if used improperly. An entire day can be wasted by typing and reading the endless 140-character blurbs in your stream.

But on Saturday night, the Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche put Twitter to good use with their "hashtag battle," which raised $43,250 as part of Hockey Fights Cancer month.

For every tweet that featured either #GoKings or #GoAvs during their game Saturday, each team will donate $1 to a local cancer-related charity of their choice. The Kings came away with the victory in the battle, with #GoKings receiving 29,374 mentions. The Kings will donate $29,374 for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

With 13,876 mentions of #GoAvs, the Avalanche and Kroenke Sports Charities will donate $13,876 to local cancer organizations involved with the Hockey Fights Cancer initiative.

"The Kings destroyed us, but it was their idea and it was a no-brainer," said Kurt Schwartzkopf, the Avs' chief marketing officer. "This was really cool. We knew going in they were the bigger market. This could be a really good thing we can keep doing."

Those hashtags were the No. 1 and 2 trending topics in the United States and Canada for a good portion of Saturday night. The Kings were the No. 1 trending topic worldwide during the game as well.

They had some stiff competition for that top spot. The UFC had two fights that featured most of their marquee fighters.  Kanye West, who has nearly 1.5 million Twitter followers, debuted his video "Runaway," at 9 p.m., the same start time as the Kings-Avs game.

If you're not clear about hashtags, they are device that organizes tweets from all over the globe. For instance, if a tweet features the hashtag, "#NHL," by clicking on it, you can read any and all tweets that feature the #NHL hashtag.

The Kings (@LAKingsHockey) added approximately 1,000 new followers during the battle. The Avs (@Avalanche) picked up about 400 new followers.

Follow Dave Lozo on Twitter: @DaveLozo