{"id":283572,"date":"2026-04-24T09:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/283572\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T09:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:57:15","slug":"kings-lose-again-to-avalanche-who-take-commanding-3-0-series-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/283572\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings lose again to Avalanche, who take commanding 3-0 series lead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Colorado Avalanche rode swagger, poise and the league\u2019s stingiest goaltender to the best record in the NHL this season. And nothing about that formula has changed in the postseason, with goals from Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen and Brock Nelson giving Colorado a 4-2 win Thursday<\/a> over the Kings and a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Kings<\/a>, who have lost their last six first-round playoff series, need a victory at home Sunday to extend their season. Their goals in Game 3 came from Trevor Moore in the second period and Adrian Kempe<\/a> on a third-period power play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re best team in the league for a reason. But we\u2019re right there,\u201d forward Quinton Byfield<\/a> said. \u201cWe\u2019re a confident group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne game at home. Must-win game,\u201d defenseman Drew Doughty<\/a> added. \u201cEveryone\u2019s going to give everything they\u2019ve got. We\u2019ve got to win that one, and then hopefully get to go back to Denver.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colorado <\/p>\n

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews celebrates a goal by defenseman Cale Makar on Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg during the second period of Game 3 Thursday at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The difference in the series has been Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood<\/a>, who was nearly perfect again, making 24 saves to place the Kings 60 minutes away from the offseason.<\/p>\n

Anton Forsberg<\/a>, playing in the postseason for the first time, has been almost as good in goal for the Kings, though he was victimized by two fluke goals and an empty-netter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth goalies in the series have been unbelievable,\u201d Kings coach D.J. Smith said. \u201cGive Wedgewood credit. This guy looks like he\u2019s putting his name on the circuit as a big-time goalie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Avalanche, who certainly haven\u2019t needed many lucky breaks in this series, got one early in the first period when Landeskog spun and launched a wild wrister from the blue line that went well wide of the net, only to have the puck carom off the end boards and into the net off Forsberg\u2019s right skate blade.<\/p>\n

The goal was the second in as many games for the Colorado captain.<\/p>\n

The Kings then got their own break six minutes into the second period when Alex Laferriere jumped Brett Kulak\u2019s clearing pass in the neutral jump and fed Byfield, whose pass into the crease struck Moore\u2019s leg and ricocheted past Wedgewood to tie the score.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado <\/p>\n

Colorado defenseman Devon Toews reaches for the puck against Kings right wing Quinton Byfield in the first period.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Colorado needed less than seven minutes to get the lead back, with Makar getting the puck along the boards on the left wing, skating into space at the point, then zipping a wrist shot through heavy traffic and just under the crossbar.<\/p>\n

The Avalanche then increased the advantage 7:39 in the final period after Kempe fanned a shot from the point. Lehkonen collected the loose puck and took it the length of the ice before deflecting a centering pass off Kempe\u2019s skate and by Forsberg for a short-handed goal, his second score of the series.<\/p>\n

That appeared to put the game away, but after the Kings pulled Forsberg for an extra attacker, Kempe halved the deficit on a tip-in with 4:02 to play. But then Nelson forced a turnover and scored into the empty net with 2:18 left.<\/p>\n

The six goals combined matched the total number from the first two games in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep doing a lot of the things that we are doing,\u201d Doughty said. \u201cObviously, we got to clean up giving up some of these chances that we\u2019re giving up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kings <\/p>\n

Kings goalie Anton Forsberg covers the puck as Colorado left wing Gabriel Landeskog battles for it in the second period.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The Kings\u2019 penalty kill, which ranked 30th in the 32-team league during the regular season, has been brilliant against the Avalanche, turning back all nine Colorado power plays. That, plus stellar play for Forsberg in goal, has frustrated the NHL\u2019s top-scoring team.<\/p>\n

But against Wedgewood, the Kings have mustered little offense, scoring just four goals in the series \u2014 three times on the power play and once off Moore\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to get more than two goals. Against this team, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s enough,\u201d Doughty said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re creating enough grade-A chances on Wedgewood. He has played well, so for us to beat them, we\u2019ve got to wear them down in the D-zone, make them tired and score goals that way. And we haven\u2019t done that enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re guaranteed just one more chance to turn that around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no quit in there,\u201d Smith said of the Kings\u2019 locker room. \u201cAnd I think you\u2019ll see our best game. To a man, we want to give them a real good outing and push this series back to Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Colorado Avalanche rode swagger, poise and the league\u2019s stingiest goaltender to the best record in the NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14993,9014,23797,121708,551,423,2194,664,48,52,51,47,50,49,5463,38374,85314,31527,30512,121707,18497],"class_list":["post-283572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-adrian-kempe","tag-anton-forsberg","tag-avalanche","tag-clearing-pass","tag-colorado","tag-game","tag-goal","tag-king","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-minute","tag-net","tag-puck","tag-scott-wedgewood","tag-second-period","tag-series-lead","tag-trevor-moore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}