MacKinnon leads Avalanche to 5-1 win and 1st-round sweep of LA Kings, ending Anze Kopitar's career

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist, Nicolas Roy and Devon Toews scored in the third period, and the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche swept the Los Angeles Kings out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 5-1 victory in Game 4 on Sunday.

Cale Makar also scored and Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves as the Presidents' Trophy-winning Avs ended the 20-year career of Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who announced his pending retirement in September.

The Slovenian center is the top scorer in franchise history and a two-time Selke Trophy winner, and he was a star on the Kings’ two Stanley Cup championship teams in 2012 and 2014 before spending the past decade as their captain. The Kings crowd repeatedly chanted “Kopi! Kopi!” in the final minutes of the blowout, and he got standing ovations when he came out for his final two shifts.

The Avalanche all greeted Kopitar warmly while he led the postgame handshake line. He then circled at center ice with his arm raised while his teammates banged their sticks on the ice for his final farewell.

With a masterful four-game demonstration of the roster-wide talent on a team ready to win it all, Colorado advanced to face the winner of the heavyweight first-round series between Dallas and Minnesota. Those clubs are tied heading to Game 5 on Tuesday, meaning the Avs will get at least five consecutive days off before the second round, and quite possibly more.

Joel Edmundson scored and Anton Forsberg stopped 27 shots for the Kings, whose fifth consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs ended with their eighth consecutive postseason defeat over the past two years and their seventh straight first-round exit since hoisting the Cup 12 years ago.

Although interim coach D.J. Smith was able to extend his team’s streak of postseason appearances with a late surge into the last wild-card spot, Los Angeles has not won a playoff round since raising the Stanley Cup for the second time.

After scoring 53 goals in the regular season, MacKinnon got his first goal of these playoffs in the first period on a power play, ending the Avs’ 0 for 9 start to the series with the man advantage. Colorado never trailed in Game 4, putting it away with two goals in less than three minutes early in the third.

Although defense-first Los Angeles began the series by slowing down the powerhouse Avs and even holding MacKinnon to one assist in three games, the Kings scored just four goals while being pushed to the brink.

The Kings again failed to score on two early power plays in Game 4 before MacKinnon put the Avs ahead when his one-timer, set up by Nazem Kadri, trickled through Forsberg.

Makar then glided past Taylor Ward early in the second period and fired a beautiful wrist shot for the Conn Smythe Trophy winner’s second goal in two games.

The Kings finally answered with veteran defenseman Edmundson’s first playoff goal since 2020.

But after Roy drove into the slot and scored on a rebound early in the third, Toews threaded a wrist shot through heavy traffic to put Colorado up 4-1.

MacKinnon added an empty-net goal, giving him 57 goals in 99 career playoff games.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL