Avalanche come back to cascade Kings

I love the Avalanche. Ask anyone. They were my brothers team growing up and they still are. So I was hoping for a better game from them than they played the day before. The Kings game was their second in a back to back, having taken on the San Jose Sharks (who apart from the wonderful Martin Jones I do like to see do badly.) Without star goalie Semyon Varlamov (who must stay in Colorado to testify in a domestic violence case) and back up goalie Berra (out with a broken ankle) the job fell to a flu ridden Calvin Pickard, who was backed by some flu ridden players, and the 5-1 score can tell you how well that went. I wasn’t hoping for such a great game from them!

The Avs didn’t seem fatigued by the second night of a back to back, nor did they seem like a team who knew how to keep possession of the puck. By the end of the first period the Kings were outshooting them 18-5. Oh, and they’d scored twice. The first was a slightly odd sequence that credited Drew Doughty with a shorthanded goal, but that’s not the whole story. Skille began the circumstances by taking a penalty, which was essentially nullified 53 seconds later by Milan Lucic, who returns after his one game suspension. They played some 4-on-4 which was expiring in the Avalanche zone with Doughty in possession when he sniped the goal past Pickard for his first shorthanded goal ever. It wasn’t a pure shorthanded but I’m sure he’ll take it anyways!

There were some post whistle scuffles to follow up a successful penalty kill, in which Lucic accidentally punched a linesman. (They seemed to take offense; see the third period.) The Kings got a second power play but didn’t capitalize until 18:40 of the first. It began with a gorgeous play from Vincent Lecavalier, who finagled the puck deftly around two Avalanche players, got it to Trevor Lewis who took advantage of Pickard’s slower lateral movement and wristed it in past Pickard. It was a stunning first period by the Kings.

Then somewhere in between the first and the second period the Kings practically forgot how to play hockey. Matt Duchene scored the first Avalanche goal 42 seconds in, which was Tyler Toffoli’s fault more than Jonathan Quick’s. At 2:09 Christian Ehrhoff took a (dumb) penalty and  7:10 into the second Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog tied the game up. Moments later at 7:33 Lewis took a penalty for tripping, and it was 10:44 into the second before the Kings even got a shot on goal. It was Dwight King who scored the Kings third goal, eventually, at 15:13, taking advantage again of Pickard’s slower lateral movement by taking a cross crease pass from Jordan Nolan, who’d been battling behind the boards to get the puck out, and tipping it past Pickard.

The Kings entered the third period with 1:33 of a power play but that was the end of their luck in the third period. True, Quick pulled out some Jedi tricks to begin with but things started going downhill at 5:38 with coincidental minors from Drew Doughty and John Mitchell. Jake Muzzin made it 3-on-4 at 6:18, and that lead to the game tying goal from Landeskog, his second of the game (and an obvious goal from the way the Kings were playing on the PK.) Tyler Toffoli took the next penalty (I know, what?) then Anze Kopitar at 15:11 (I know, double what?) Neither penalty was deserved, in fact Kopitar drew a penalty going into the zone, or he should have, yet all the ref saw was Kopitar off balance and called high sticking. It was Toffoli’s penalty that lead to the Avalanche’s 4th goal, which the Kings could never equalize. Not for lack of trying; there were some good sequences at the end, including some solid zone time but lack of chances. Marian Gaborik managed to draw a penalty during that time, but with only 30.5 seconds remaining there was little the Kings could do with a 6-on-4.

The Kings still go into the All Star Break with a 7 point divisional lead (though the Sharks have one game in hand.) Enjoy the All Star shenanigans hockey fans!

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