DENVER — The Kings took the ice in Colorado and came away with the same realization the rest of the NHL has faced this season – the Colorado Avalanche are practically unbeatable on their home ice.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the 399th goal of his career, Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist, and the surging Avalanche won their eighth game in a row, beating the Kings, 5-2, on Monday night.
MacKinnon added an assist to go with his NHL-leading 32nd goal this season. Jack Drury, Cale Makar and Martin Necas also scored for the league-leading Avalanche, who have won 14 consecutive games at home.
Colorado has points in 28 of its last 29 games and is 10-0-1 in its last 11 to continue its historic start to the season. Colorado reached 65 points in 38 games, second fastest all-time to the 1929-30 Boston Bruins.
Corey Perry scored and Joel Armia added a short-handed goal for the Kings, who have lost seven of nine.
Drury opened the scoring midway through the first period and Perry tied it with a power-play goal 5:15 into the second period.
Necas put Colorado back in front later in the second when he tapped in a puck that was sitting on the goal line. Nelson’s snap shot beat Anton Forsberg over his left shoulder with 2:30 left in the second.
Forsberg finished with 21 saves for the Kings.
Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 23 shots, including a save on Adrian Kempe’s short-handed breakaway late in the second period.
He couldn’t stop Armia, who skated the length of the ice and scored through the pads during a Colorado power play.
It was the NHL-leading seventh short-handed goal of the season for the Kings.
Forsberg came off for an extra skater with 2:26 remaining and MacKinnon scored an empty-netter with 1:37 remaining. Makar added another goal with 45 seconds to go to seal it.
UP NEXT
The Kings host Tampa Bay on Thursday. at 4 p.m.
More to come on this story.