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With Wedgewood backstopping the defense in his first playoff
series, Colorado has allowed just four goals in three games by
defense-minded Los Angeles, which has held superstar Nathan
MacKinnon without a goal so far.
“It’s been tough sledding to create offense, but we have
different guys stepping up on different nights and scoring in
different situations,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “That’s
been able to make the difference.”
Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe scored and Anton Forsberg stopped
19 shots, but the Kings are a loss away from being eliminated in
the first round for the fifth consecutive season.
Game 4 is Sunday in Los Angeles. A loss would end the 20-year
career of Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who is retiring after the
season.
Los Angeles scored two goals for the first time in the series,
but couldn't find a tying goal after Kempe scored on a power
play with 4:03 to play. Instead, Brock Nelson scored into LA's
empty net with 2:18 left.
“We’ve just got to continue to find ways to break them down,”
Makar said. “I feel like tonight, we got a lot of chances and
capitalized on a few. Still, I feel like there’s areas for
improvement, for sure.”
Los Angeles hasn't won a playoff round in six previous tries
since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, and this loss was the
Kings' seventh straight postseason defeat dating to last spring.
After grinding out a pair of 2-1 victories in Denver, the
Avalanche again took care of business in LA with fundamentally
sound hockey — and a good bit of luck this time.
Landeskog put the Avs ahead in the opening minutes with a fluke
goal when his wrist shot hit the end boards and caromed back
perfectly to deflect in off Forsberg’s skate.
Colorado then got another fortunate bounce during a Kings power
play in the third period. When Lehkonen and Logan O’Connor broke
out on an odd-man rush, Lehkonen’s pass deflected off the back
of Kempe’s skate and ricocheted through Forsberg’s legs with
12:21 to play.
Offense remains the fatal flaw of the Kings, who were the only
team in the bottom third of the NHL in scoring to make the
playoffs. Los Angeles has four goals on 76 shots against
Colorado.
“We've got to find ways to score,” Kings interim coach D.J.
Smith said. “I mean, we had looks. You can give them credit, but
we missed the net 13 times leading into the third period.”
Makar put Colorado ahead in the second, dangling just inside the
blue line and firing a brilliant wrist shot through traffic. The
perennial Norris Trophy candidate has 23 playoff goals —
second-most among active defensemen — in 82 career games,
memorably scoring eight in his Conn Smythe Trophy-winning
performance during the Avs' championship run in 2022.
Colorado defenseman Josh Manson left Game 3 early with an
upper-body injury. He'll be re-evaluated before Sunday, Bednar
said.
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