King Return to Denver Scores Big

In their first game at the Pepsi Center since Game 7 of last year’s Western Conference semifinals, the Kings walked away happy this time.

Getting the winning goal from Jason Allison and five goals from the unlikely trio of Mattias Norstrom, Kelly Buchberger and Craig Johnson, the Kings surprised the Colorado Avalanche, 6-4, on Monday in front of a sellout crowd of 18,007.

Buchberger and Johnson scored two goals each as the Kings, who had scored as many as six goals only three times in their previous 51 games, put together the highest-scoring output of the season against the NHL’s stingiest team.

The Avalanche, which had its six-game winning streak ended, started the game with a league-leading 1.95 goals-against average and had not given up more than two goals in any of its previous eight games, among them a 4-2 victory over the Kings in a tight-checking game Saturday at Staples Center.

But Johnson, returning to the lineup after sitting out two games because of a cut on his right eye, scored the first shorthanded goal of his career and Norstrom scored his first goal in more than two years, ending a 171-game drought.

Buchberger’s two goals, among them an empty-netter, ended a 39-game drought for the veteran winger and doubled his season output.

“That’s great to see,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “That’s what a team is all about. It’s nice to see those guys come through.”

The Kings, who have won six of seven road games this month, are 10-2-2 away from Staples Center since Dec. 8, when they lost to the Blues, 2-0, at St. Louis.

“We seem to play good hockey when we’re playing good teams, and we’ve been playing nothing but good teams,” Murray said. “You recognize if you’re not prepared to play, you could get embarrassed. We don’t want that to happen.”

Instead, they embarrassed Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy, who before Monday night led the league with a 1.83 goals-against average.

“That doesn’t happen often,” said Johnson, whose two-goal effort was only the third of his career but second this season. “We made some great shots.”

The Kings built a 2-0 lead on Johnson’s goals, then saw the Avalanche tie the score on two power-play goals by Joe Sakic, ending a career-worst 18-game goal-scoring drought for last season’s NHL most valuable player. The Kings took the lead for good on a goal by Buchberger with 28 seconds to play in the second period.

The Kings are 13-1 when leading after two periods, but this third period was more wild than most. The Avalanche kept the pressure on until the end.

Norstrom’s goal early in the third period again gave the Kings a two-goal lead, and, after Ville Nieminen had pulled the Avalanche within a goal, Allison scored the winner on a backhander from the slot with 5:26 to play.

The Avalanche, though, got an unassisted goal from Rob Blake with 1:24 to play and was on the offensive again before Buchberger flipped the puck out of the King zone and into an empty net with six seconds left.

“Totally different look than what we saw two days ago,” Norstrom said. “[That was] a tight-checking game, low shot count, not a lot of quality chances. Tonight we saw two teams--and I don’t think we wanted this--way more back and forth.”

Norstrom’s goal, his first since Jan. 11, 2000, was scored on one such play, Brad Chartrand carrying the puck into the Avalanche zone and drawing two defenders to him before dropping the puck as he was sandwiched between them.

“He almost split the D,” said Norstrom, a defenseman who has scored only eight goals in 498 NHL games. “I just came up behind him and the puck popped out to the side [into the left faceoff circle] and I got it pretty good right to the side of Patrick. It was nice to get it over with. It had been a long time. ...

“Of course it feels good. It’s fun to contribute a little bit on the offensive side of the game once in a while, and it’s really been once in a while.”

He said it was fun to see Buchberger and Johnson score too.