Makar Tiebreaker, Lehkonen SHG Push Avalanche to 3-0 Series Lead

Cale Makar scored the tiebreaking goal in the second period, Artturi Lehkonen added a short-handed dagger, Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves, and the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche moved to the brink of the second round with a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena.

Los Angeles Kings 2 - 4 Colorado Avalanche (periods 0-1, 1-1, 1-2)

Goals: 25:55 Moore (Byfield, Laferriere), 55:57 Kempe (Panarin, Laferriere, PP) — 5:29 Landeskog (Roy, Manson), 32:12 Makar (Toews, Lehkonen), 47:39 Lehkonen (SHG), 57:42 Nelson (EN).

Goalies: Forsberg (19 saves) — Wedgewood (24 saves).

Series: Colorado lead 3-0.

Landeskog's tip stakes Colorado the early lead

Gabriel Landeskog deflected a Nicolas Roy point shot past Anton Forsberg at 5:29 of the first to put Colorado up 1-0. Trevor Moore answered for Los Angeles in the second period off a Quinton Byfield-Alex Laferriere set-up at 5:55 to even the score before Makar restored the lead at 12:12 with a wrist shot from the right circle, set up by Devon Toews and Lehkonen.

Lehkonen's short-handed dagger

Down a man early in the third, Colorado turned the tables: Lehkonen's intended pass for Logan O'Connor on a 2-on-1 deflected off Adrian Kempe's skate and through Forsberg's five-hole at 7:39 — a short-handed goal that stretched the lead to 3-1. Kempe answered with a power-play tip-in at 15:57 to make it 3-2, but Brock Nelson's empty-netter at 17:42 closed it out.

Wedgewood does the heavy lifting

Wedgewood was steady for Colorado all night and especially in the third period as Los Angeles outshot them 26-23. Forsberg, who took over for Darcy Kuemper after Game 1, was solid but couldn't survive the deflections — two Colorado goals came off fortunate redirects.

What it means

Colorado have outscored the Kings 13-7 across three games and can complete a sweep in Game 4 on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena. The Avalanche have controlled the series despite Nathan MacKinnon being held without a goal — depth scoring has done the damage.