Avalanche at Kings: Season Sweep

Kings: 3, Avalanche: 1

Despite beating Anaheim the night before and a pretty solid back-half of the season, the Avalanche were officially eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday, prior to their meeting with the Kings.

With such a blow to a team that finished first in their division last year, it was theorized that the Avalanche would either come out full of anger, or meekly roll over and die with nothing left to play for.

Thankfully for the Kings sake, it was mostly the latter.

After an initial few minutes that was back and forth, including a power play for the Avalanche, the Kings found their game and hemmed the Avalanche in their end for long stretches of time. Their puck possession dominance was rewarded when Dwight King put in a Jeff Carter fast-break rebound for a 1-0 lead.

The period ended with the Avalanche only mustering 3 shots on goal, but as is precedent for the Kings this season, they were unable to build on their lead despite numerous chances, and the Avalanche came back in the opening stretch of the second period to tie the game off a miscue from a bored Jonathan Quick. He flubbed an easy glove save, resulting in a Ryan O’Reilly goal.

It was definitely a poor goal, but after such a heavy workload in the back-half of this season, one or two stinkers are bound to go in.

via Nick Nickson on the radio broadcast: Jonathan Quick has set a career-high for consecutive games started not once, but twice, in 2015.

— Jewels frm the Crown (@JFTC_Kings) April 5, 2015

In between his 16-game streak (1/17-2/26) and his 17-game streak (3/1-4/4), Quick got exactly one game off.

— Jewels frm the Crown (@JFTC_Kings) April 5, 2015

It was the only goal Quick would allow, mostly thanks to a paltry Avalanche offense that only managed 10 measly shots on goal. Halfway through the second period, Alec Martinez put in a Jeff Carter rebound with a rocket of a shot, and then, unsure if it counted, put it in again.

Twice for good measure https://t.co/HA8OL4ds4g

— LA Kings (@LAKings) April 5, 2015

Quick made a big save at the end of the second period to preserve the lead. The Kings held on despite a sometimes sloppy third period, eventually icing the game when Marian Gaborik riffled a shot past a distracted Varlamov, who just seconds before was attempting to head to the Colorado bench for an extra attacker.

The Kings allowed a franchise tying-low in shots on goal allowed with 10, and thus despite giving up only one goal, Jonathan Quick’s save percentage went down.

Colorado’s 10 SOG ties the franchise low, in terms of a Kings opponent.

— Rich Hammond (@Rich_Hammond) April 5, 2015

The Colorado Avalanche had 2 more shots tonight than the LA Kings had goals on Thursday.

— The Royal Half (@theroyalhalf) April 5, 2015

Robyn Regehr and his two assists was the third star of the game, so that’s where we’re at now.

Can’t believe with four games left the Kings could still have home ice in round 1 or not even make the playoffs.

— Lewis Kay (@lewkay) April 5, 2015

¯\_(ツ)_/¯