DENVER (AP) Anze Kopitar was asked over and over about scoring four goals. All he wanted to do was talk about earning two points. That’s the No. 1 figure on his mind.”I’m playing for the guys in here. Our goal is to make the playoffs Adidas Michael Hutchinson Jersey ,” Kopitar said . ”That’s all it comes down to.”Still, it was a pretty special evening for the Los Angeles captain.Kopitar became the first Kings player with a four-goal game since 1993, Jonathan Quick stopped 29 shots and LA picked up another valuable road win by cruising past the Colorado Avalanche 7-1 on Thursday night.Kopitar was so efficient that he picked up his fourth career hat trick with 7:33 remaining in the second period. He added another goal early in the third. This was the first four-goal game by a Kings player since Luc Robitaille accomplished the feat on Nov. 25, 1993, at Quebec.”He’s elite. He’s one of the best players in the league,” said Kopitar’s teammate Nate Thompson, who had two assists. ”I have a first-row seat and it’s fun to watch.”Not if you’re on the other side. The Avalanche simply couldn’t stop him.”He’s a world-class player for a reason,” Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said. ”He showed that tonight.”Tobias Rieder had two goals and Jake Muzzin scored his first since Feb. 3 for the Kings, who surpassed Anaheim for the third spot in the Pacific Division. Los Angeles improved to 6-0-2 over its last eight road games.Quick allowed an early goal to Mikko Rantanen and was stellar after that in a game that had a playoff feel. Well, at least early, before the Kings reeled off seven unanswered goals.”They came out pretty hard the first five minutes. … We settled in and played our game, our road game, our team game Adidas Mike Hoffman Jersey ,” Thompson said. ”I thought we played a pretty complete game.”The Kings beat an Avalanche team that’s 15-3-1 in its last 19 games on home ice. Colorado remains in a wild-card spot with eight games remaining.Time to scoreboard watch?”You’ve got to be careful watching the scoreboard because it’s wasted emotion,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. ”We’re concentrating on what we have to do to get in.”Semyon Varlamov showed signs of fatigue in giving up five goals before being replaced by backup Jonathan Bernier in the second period. Varlamov has appeared in 19 straight games (17 starts) with Bernier sidelined by a concussion. Bernier returned Thursday and allowed two goals.It’s the third time this season the Avs have allowed seven goals.Trailing 3-1, Nathan MacKinnon clanged one off the crossbar seconds into the second period. Moments later, Rieder found himself on a breakaway and beat Varlamov with a wrist shot.That pretty much wrapped things up. About the only drama was Kopitar’s hat-trick quest.He recorded his first hat trick since Feb. 12, 2016, with a backhander in the second period. Some of the fans at the Pepsi Center littered the ice with hats. He wasn’t done there, though, scoring his fourth on a breakaway.”I just felt all night that the puck was kind of following me around,” Kopitar said. ”It worked out for me tonight.”At 30, Kopitar’s turning in his best statistical season with 86 points.”We’re all happy for him,” Thompson said. ”He’s usually the guy that’s dishing the puck, a pass-first kind of guy. He can score goals, too Adidas Jonny Brodzinski Jersey , apparently. It was a pleasure to watch.”Colorado took a 1-0 lead 3:33 into the game when Gabriel Landeskog kicked a sliding puck over to Rantanen, who rocketed it into the net. The advantage lasted all of 55 seconds.MacKinnon had an assist to extend his point streak to a career-best 14 games. It was also his 92nd point of the season, the most by an Avalanche player since Joe Sakic had 100 in 2006-07.NOTES: Quick was credited with his fourth assist of the season on Rieder’s goal. … Dustin Brown had two assists. … Avs F Carl Soderberg missed a second straight game with an illness. … D Tyson Barrie had his 11-game point streak snapped. … Rantanen and MacKinnon both have 21 points in March, the most in the NHL.UP NEXTKings: Finish a four-game trip on Saturday in Edmonton.Avalanche: Host Vegas on Saturday.— SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Evander Kane has done a good job tormenting the Calgary Flames with his goal-scoring prowess and physical play.Kane scored twice to give him six goals in his past two games against Calgary and got into two scrums as the San Jose Sharks won their seventh straight game, beating the Flames 5-1 on Saturday.”I’m not a guy to shy away from the physical part of the game,” Kane said. ”That’s a big part of hockey in my mind and a lot of people’s. You don’t see fighting as much anymore. But at the same time I think it’s very necessary and sometimes it calls for it.”Kane followed up his four-goal effort in Calgary a week ago with another impactful performance, scoring a short-handed goal in the second period to give the Sharks a 3-1 lead and an insurance goal in the third. He also used his physical play to get into a scrum with Mikael Backlund and a fight with Travis Hamonic.The Sharks improved to 10-2 since acquiring Kane just before the trade deadline last month, including this current streak that is the longest for San Jose since a seven-gamer from March 25 to April 5, 2013.”This is the time of year you want to be playing well, you want to get hot,” coach Peter DeBoer said. ”For me it’s about our game. The results are nice, the wins are nice. Out of the seven games this was probably the sloppiest of the seven but we found a way to win.”Brenden Dillon Adidas Peter Budaj Jersey , Jannik Hansen and Justin Braun also scored for the Sharks, who moved six points ahead of Los Angeles in the race for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Kings played later Saturday in Edmonton. Martin Jones made 37 saves.Michael Stone scored the lone for the Flames, who have lost five straight to fall out of the playoff race. Calgary trails Anaheim by nine points for the final playoff spot with just six games remaining. David Rittich made 28 saves.The Flames have been outscored 25-7 during the skid despite outshooting the opponent each game.”It seems like we’re leading the NHL in moral victories but it’s not getting us any points right now,” forward Troy Brouwer said. ”It resulted in another loss where we actually had really good stretches during the game but ultimately no results.”The Flames were controlling the play in the second period before Kane’s goal turned the momentum back in San Jose’s favor. Calgary held San Jose without a shot on goal for more than six minutes to start the period and had just started a power play when Kane struck for his goal.Chris Tierney skated into the offensive zone and held the puck near the net as Johnny Gaudreau skated past Kane, who was set up in front of the crease. Tierney then slid a pass to Kane, who knocked it into the open net for his sixth goal with the Sharks and 26th on the season.Kane then had his run-ins with the Flames late in the second and early in the third before the Sharks broke it open with goals from Braun and Kane midway through the third period.Dillon, who assisted on Kane’s second goal, then got into a fight late in the game with Garnet Hathaway to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick.The Sharks started fast and scored twice in a span of 74 seconds midway through the first period with goals by Dillon and Hansen.The Flames got one back with a blast from the point through traffic by Stone.NOTES: The Sharks honored Jonathan Cheechoo, who recently announced his retirement. … Brent Burns‘ assist on Hansen’s goal was his 49th of the season, breaking the record he set two years ago for Sharks defensemen. … Flames F Matthew Tkachuk (upper body) and D TJ Brodie did not make the trip for the two games in California.UP NEXTFlames: Visit Los Angeles on MondaySharks: Visit Chicago on Monday.—