Kings stay hot, crush skidding Avalanche

Quinton Byfield scored two goals for the Los Angeles Kings, who beat the visiting Colorado Avalanche 4-1 on Sunday evening.

Trevor Moore and Drew Doughty also scored, Adrian Kempe had two assists and Cam Talbot made 20 saves for the Kings, who have won six of their past seven games.

Josh Manson scored and Alexandar Georgiev made 34 saves for the Avalanche, who have lost three games in a row (0-1-2).

The Kings took a 2-1 lead with 6:34 left in the third period after winning the puck on the forecheck following a dump-in, and Kempe made a short centering pass to Byfield, who scored with a redirection.

Los Angeles scored 56 seconds later when Moore drove to the net and scored short-side up high for a 3-1 lead.

Talbot assisted on Doughty's empty-net goal that made it 4-1 with 1:07 left.

The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead at 12:28 of the first period.

Los Angeles dumped the puck in the Colorado zone and Kings forward Carl Grundstrom was the first to take possession, but he slipped in the corner and the Avalanche headed the other direction.

Nathan MacKinnon crossed the blue line with the puck and fed Mikko Rantanen above the left circle. Rantanen made a one-timer pass to Manson as he entered the play, and the veteran defenseman scored with a wrist shot from the inside edge of the right circle for his first goal of the season.

Georgiev stopped Anze Kopitar's backhand try from in close off the rush with just over 16 minutes left in the second period, but the Kings tied it 1-1 at 9:03 when Byfield deflected a slap shot from Mikey Anderson off the rush.

The Avalanche played without defenseman Cale Makar, who sat out with a lower-body injury that he sustained late in the third period of a 4-3 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.

Makar is tied for fifth in the NHL in points (34).

—Field Level Media