MacKinnon extends home point streak to 25, Avalanche ease past Kings

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist to extend his season-opening home point streak to 25 games, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Los Angeles Kings 5-1 at Ball Arena on Friday.

MacKinnon tied Bobby Orr (1974-75 with the Boston Bruins) for the second-longest home point streak to start a season in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky is first at 40 games (1988-89 with the Kings).

MacKinnon’s overall point streak is at 13 games (28 points; 12 goals, 16 assists). He leads the NHL with 84 points (31 goals, 53 assists), one more than Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov.

Logan O'Connor scored twice, and Cale Makar and Josh Manson scored for the Avalanche (32-14-3), who have won three straight games and four of their past five (4-1-0) going into their All-Star break. Ross Colton had two assists, and Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves.

“Pretty happy with the way our guys played again tonight, from the goaltender out, against a really good team,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It's nice to win a couple games and be playing some solid hockey going into the break. So guys feel good about it now and then get away from the game for a little bit, do a little bit of conditioning, and hopefully pick up where we left off.”

Kevin Fiala scored for the Kings (22-15-9), who have lost three straight and 13 of their past 15 (2-8-5). Cam Talbot allowed three goals on 12 shots before being replaced by David Rittich to start the second period. Rittich made 17 saves.

“I thought we started well and then gave a couple of goals up from distance and that set us back,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “But we had our opportunities to score as well, to pull ourselves back in the game and we didn't do that. To get down to a team like this, it's hard to come back, but I thought our guys stuck with it for most of the night.”

O’Connor gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 7:44 of the first period with a wrist shot from above the left face-off circle that went top shelf far side.

“The puck sort of like got deflected to me in the neutral zone a bit, and then I just figured I'd use the D-man as a screen,” O’Connor said. “I think the goalie maybe had a tough time seeing it through the traffic there, and then just tried to get it on net.”

O’Connor extended the lead to 2-0 when he caught a pass from Miles Wood inside the left circle, turned and beat Talbot short side with a wrist shot at 14:55.

“As a line, we're just having a lot of fun out there and playing predictable to each other. We're using our strengths to our advantage,” O’Connor said. “The second goal, it's all the work by 'Woody' and [Colton] getting in on the forecheck and Woody finding me there. Maybe I put it in there, but the work happened a lot further ahead in the play.”

MacKinnon made it 3-0 after he sliced down and across the Kings’ zone and fired a wrist shot across his body that went off the blocker at 18:30.

“Just because Nate and Mikko [Rantanen] and those guys have been tearing it up, doesn't mean we haven't been getting some decent contributions from the rest of our lineup here recently,” Bednar said. “That's why we're able to put up a handful of goals a night instead of one or two. It's not just those guys contributing, but they're obviously driving the bus.”

Fiala cut it to 3-1 on the power play with a slap shot that went over the right shoulder of Georgiev at 6:20 of the second period.

“I think it's just the little details that we had going at the start of the year have gotten a little more lax all the way through, starting maybe with the back end,” Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “We know we have a good group in here. We have the right pieces, but at the same time we've got to start taking ownership of it as a group and turning this around.”

Manson made it 4-2 when he finished a give-and-go with Andrew Cogliano past the glove of Rittich at 11:44.

“It was just good talking by 'Cogs' right in the neutral zone, telling me to skate, that I had the space to move there, and then talking on the entry,” Manson said. “He let me know he was there to support, and then once I saw it, I just kind of kept my momentum. He made a nice play back to me, and I got lucky it went in.”

Makar pushed it to 5-1 with a shot from the blue line that deflected off Kings defenseman Drew Doughty 31 seconds into the third period.

NOTES: MacKinnon has 53 points (21 goals, 32 assists) during his home streak. … MacKinnon has 11 (seven goals, three assists) in his past three games, the most by an Avalanche player in a three-game span since Peter Forsberg (five goals, six assists in three games) from Feb. 19-23, 2001. … Makar extended his point streak to six games (10 points; three goals, seven assists). … With a secondary assist on O’Connor’s first goal, Georgiev became one of eight goalies with multiple assists this season. … Kings forward Quinton Byfield was a late scratch due to illness.