Original story found on Hockey Mountain High

The Colorado Avalanche headed to the City of Angels to battle with the Kings on Thursday night for Game Three. Colorado played through a rough game, but pulled it together in the end, winning 4–2. The top-six for the Avalanche remains silent on the scoresheet except for Artturi Lehkonen, who now has two goals in the playoffs. If the Avalanche want to end this in four games on Sunday, they will need to push the top-six to the front of the net and crank up their physical game.

View from the Mountaintop

The Avalanche might already face injuries after the contest. Josh Manson left the game for the locker room early in the second period. He returned, but then Sam Malinski left with an apparent injury only a few minutes later. He, too, returned to the game, but then Manson left once again shortly after and did not return to the game.

Colorado continues to struggle on the power play. The issues of the regular season appeared to be resolved as they were one of the hottest power play teams in March. Nazem Kadri injured his hand, and the power play unit has not been the same since his return. In three games so far, Colorado has gone 0-for-9 in its opportunities. The Avs entered Thursday night’s game ranked 13th among 16 playoff teams in power play performance.

Gabriel Landeskog, who made his return exactly one year ago on Thursday night, is tied for the team in goals. He scored to tie the contest in Game Two and then threw the puck off the boards and off Anton Forsberg into the net.

Artturi Lehkonen scored Colorado’s first shorthanded goal of the postseason to tie the team lead in goals with Landeskog. His first goal was in Game One, and both goals shifted the momentum of the games.

Thursday was the first of the three played so far in which Colorado has been outshot. The Kings threw 26 shots on net to the 23 shots by Colorado. The Avs struggled in the first and second periods with their zone exits, giving the Kings a ton of possession time. If the Avs clean up their zone exits for Game Three, they may prevent this from happening on Sunday afternoon.

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The Avalanche will stay in Los Angeles for Game Four against the Kings on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. MT. TNT and Altitude Sports will broadcast the game.