Kings rally from early deficit to beat Avalanche for first win of season
Adrian Kempe’s goal with 3:50 remaining was the winner as the Los Angeles Kings rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 Thursday night for their first win of the season.
Kempe, who was moved to the top line, took a centering pass from Anze Kopitar and beat Hunter Miska in front for his second goal of the season. The Kings added another when Blake Lizotte scored his second of the season into an empty-net with 42 seconds remaining.
Drew Doughty and Gabriel Vilardi also scored for Los Angeles (1-1-2) and Kopitar had two assists. Jonathan Quick stopped 24 shots.
Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon each had a goal and an assist for Colorado (2-2-0). Miska made 23 saves in his first NHL start.
Takeaways from the Kings’ 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.
Miska’s only other NHL appearance came on Nov. 13, 2018, for Arizona, when he played the final 18:16 at Detroit and allowed one goal on nine shots.
After Rantanen’s one-timer opened the scoring at 4:49, MacKinnon put Colorado up by two with 45 seconds remaining in the first when he went top shelf on Quick’s wrist side for a power-play goal.
The Kings tied it with a pair of power-play scores in the second period. Doughty had a one-timer from the right faceoff circle at 3:35 while the Kings had a two-man advantage. Vilardi evened it with 2:10 remaining in the period when he beat Miska top shelf on his glove side.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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