"The Avalanche just kept getting better and better Saturday night in a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center.

After a slow offensive start, the Avs put three pucks past tough Kings goalie Jonathan Quick in the final two periods to get the victory. Peter Mueller, Cody McLeod and Gabriel Landeskog scored for Colorado, and goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere was excellent in goal.

"I liked the way we played tonight," Avs coach Joe Sacco said. "The whole team worked hard, and I thought we had a good pace to our game. Jiggy was very solid in net, like he has been for us."

The Avs play again tonight in Anaheim.

The Avalanche had 10 of the game's first 13 shots, but most everything was from the perimeter. Consequently, Quick had a fairly easy time of it, and the game was scoreless into the second period when the Kings struck first.

The Avs' Erik Johnson roamed out of position, chasing a King into the opposite corner, when Dustin Brown shot a puck that Avs goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere failed to corral.

With Johnson on the other side of the net, the puck bounced into a wide open space on the right side, leaving an easy rebound goal for Anze Kopitar at 5:26.

The rest of the second period belonged to the Avs, however. With 6:25 left, Colorado finally put something past Quick. It came from the unlikely stick of winger Cody McLeod, who took a great lead pass from Stefan Elliott and came in alone on goal."