Avalanche Defeats Kings 5-1 in Game Four to Complete Sweep, Advance to Round Two

Sunday Sweep

Nathan MacKinnon scored a pair of goals and added an assist to help the Avalanche advance to Round Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 5-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings in Game Four of Round One at Crpyto.com Arena on Sunday. 

Cale Makar, Nicolas Roy and Devon Toews all added tallies for the Avs, while Gabriel Landeskog posted two assists and Scott Wedgewood stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced in net.

“It just shows that we stuck to all of our details this entire series," Makar said about the series sweep. "I felt like they were pushing at times, and we were able to weather it. It’s a good test for us, because 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. Kudos to everyone in here. I felt like we never wavered off our gameplan. We just continued to press on them, and fortunately it worked out.”

On the defensive side for Colorado, the Avs allowed five goals over the four-game series, with two coming at even strength.

“We stuck with our game plan and what we’ve been preaching all year on the defensive side of things, and it paid off for us," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said. "I think we have the ability to play different ways in order to win. But when you talk about championship teams, its the defending that pushes you over the top. And I thought we were committed to that from the drop of the puck in Game One [until] the buzzer went in Game Four.”

Bednar also praised MacKinnon's checking game in this series in addition to his offensive production on Sunday.

“When you have an offensive weapon like Nate, and he’s bought into it like that, you don’t have any choice on our roster but to buy into it as well," Bednar said. "So I saw a great checking series from Nate against a really good line in (Kings forward Quinton) Byfield mostly, (Kings forward Anze) Kopitar secondarily. They did a great job on that side of it. And then I just think you’re not gonna 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."

How It Happened

MacKinnon opened the scoring on the power play with his first goal of the playoffs at 13:13 of the opening frame via a left-circle one-timer set up by Nazem Kadri's cross-seam feed.

Colorado doubled its lead at 5:48 of the middle frame when Makar scored his second goal of the playoffs via a right-circle shot after making an incredible shake-move to skate around Kings forward Taylor Ward at the right point.

Joel Edmundson put the Kings on the board at 13:43 of the second period via a left-circle wrist shot.

The Avalanche took a 3-1 lead at 3:13 of the third period when Roy scored his second goal of the playoffs when he cleaned up a rebound from the doorstep created by Lehkonen's right-circle shot off the rush.

Toews made it a 4-1 game for the Avs at 6:01 of the third period with his first goal of the playoffs via a left-circle shot off the rush set up by MacKinnon's cross-slot feed.

Colorado took a 5-1 lead at 14:22 of the third period when MacKinnon scored his second goal of the game and playoffs via an empty-net tally from the right circle.

Next Up

The Avalanche will host either the Minnesota Wild or Dallas Stars in Game One of Round Two.