After years of struggling against the Los Angeles Kings, it appears the Colorado Avalanche finally have their number. Colorado rode another excellent defensive effort, solid goaltending by Jean-Sebastien Giguere, and another great night from Paul Stastny and Peter Mueller to a 3-1 victory over the Kings, improving their season record to 3-0 over Los Angeles.
The Kings started the scoring early in the second period, as Anze Kopitar easily put a juicy rebound past Giguere for a 1-0 lead. But just minutes later, Stefan Elliott made an incredible pass across the center of the ice (catching the Kings on an ill-advised line change) and hitting forward Cody McLeod on a breakaway. McLeod deflected the puck betweem Jonathan Quick's pads just before he crashed into the net. Tie game. Later in the period, T.J. Galiardi fired a shot from the point that was deflected out of mid air by Mueller and between Quick's pads for Colorado's first lead of the game. It was Mueller's third goal in two games -- and his third goal of the season.
Colorado would put the game away with a power play goal in the third period. Gabriel Landeskog made a great hustle play on the blue line to keep the puck in the zone, found Stastny across the ice, and Stastny made a great pass back to Landeskog right in front of the net.
Colorado maintains their 8th place position in the West, but now sit only two points behind Los Angeles for the 7th seed. The Avalanche finish off this brief road swing with a bus ride north to face the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night.