Kings Hit By Avalanche of Goals in Colorado

The Los Angeles Kings arguably had one of their most disappointing games of the season so far with a 6-1 defeat in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche Tuesday. The Avs extended their run over LA to 3-0-0 this season with the victory.

It was a period of 30 seconds in the first period where the damage was done. Marek Svatos scored on 3.28 following a lucky bounce off the net and Matt Greene's face. On the following face off, John Zeiler and Ian Laperriere fought on what was the most predictable event of the night.

Zeiler had recently served a three game suspension following the two sides' last meeting in LA when Zeiler sent Adam Foote into the boards from behind, causing Foote to sustain an injury which still keeps him out of the line up.

Both Zeiler and Laperriere knew that a fight was inevitable as retribution; Laperriere was quoted after as saying, "Everybody knew it was going to happen...He plays on the edge...I respect him a little bit more now by responding to the challenge."

Twenty-five seconds after the first goal, Milan Hejduk extended the score to 2-0. Three Kings defenders were sucked behind the net, leaving Hejduk in open ice to receive the puck and score.

Cody McLeod added the third goal with 11.44 gone off a Jason LaBarbera rebound. Certainly for the remainder of the first period it seemed like Colorado was on a permanent power play, even though it was actually 5-on-5, due to the sheer volume of pressure.

It was on an actual power play in the second period when the Avalanche made it 4-0. Ryan Smith found some space in between the Kings' penalty killers and snapped home a shot from close range. However, the Kings were incensed that the goal was able to count since an interference call on Hejduk was missed, knocking Patrick O'Sullivan to the ice.

Before even half of the game had gone by, Colorado led 5-0 with McLeod picking up his secon following a mistake from LaBarbera playing the puck behind his net. McLeod perhaps made himself a target for subsequent matches after some unnecessary showboating. Raitis Ivanans crashed into McLeod after the goal was scored, which he took exception to.

It was another questionable call that made it 6-0 just after the half way mark. The puck was batted out of the zone by an Avalanche player's hand and fell to Chris Stewart on the breakaway. Hand-passes are allowed in the defensive zone, but not out of it where Stewart received the puck and the play should've been called. Stewart scored his first ever NHL goal by tucking it past LaBarbera on his second attempt.

On the same power-play attempt, LA finally made it onto the board with some good cycling behind the net between Alex Frolov and Michal Handzus, freeing the puck for rookie Oscar Moller to score. At 12.02 in the second period, it really was too little too late for Los Angeles.

The remaining period of the game passed without significant incident. LaBarbera made some good stops against Stewart and McLeod, denying McLeod his hat-trick, but the Kings never looked like scoring again, let alone getting back into the game.

The Avalanche improve to 14-13-1 in 28 games for No. 9 spot in the West whereas the Kings fall to 13th with a record of 11-12-4. LA are still only four points behind 8th placed Nashville and still well in touch for playoff contention in contrast to last year when they were already written off.

It also looks like Jack Johnson will be back with the club in the next 4 to 6 weeks after his injury, he's back skating in practice, which can only be a boost for the Kings as they look to push upwards in the standings.