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 New Jersey Devils Hats Authentic ,” 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 Custom New Jersey Devils Jerseys , our team game,” 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 www.officialislanders.com , a pass-first kind of guy. He can score goals, too, 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.— NEW YORK (AP) — Brett Connolly was calling for the puck as he skated up the left side. He quickly put the Washington Capitals ahead when he got a cross-ice pass from John Carlson and helped the Capitals keep their winning streak going.Connolly scored the tiebreaking goal on a one-timer from the left circle with 6:24 left in the third period, and the Capitals beat the New York Rangers 5-3 Saturday for their season-high fifth straight win.“A little bit of open ice,” Connolly said of his fourth goal of the season. “(Carlson) saw me over there, I was calling for it. … I got a good piece of it and it went right where I wanted it.”Alex Ovechkin, Nic Dowd, Jakub Vrana and Tom Wilson also scored for defending Stanley Cup champion Washington, and Carlson had three assists. Pheonix Copley New York Islanders T-Shirts Authentic , starting in place of Braden Holtby, stopped 27 shots.“Good team win, we’re playing really well as of late,” Connolly said. “We’re starting to get that feeling again through our room … like we had toward the end of last year.”The Capitals, who have rallied after giving up the first goal in four of their wins during their streak, trailed 1-0 after one period and by two midway through the second before scoring three straight to take the lead heading to the third.“We’re always believing we’re in games,” Connolly said. “We’re finding ways to win.”Ryan Strome had tied the score 3-3 on a wraparound at 5:30 of the final period — his first goal with the Rangers since being acquired from Edmonton on Nov. 16.Connolly, who also had an assist, then gave Washington the lead back, and Wilson added an empty-netter with 1:08 left for his fourth. He has nine points in seven games since returning from a season-opening suspension that sidelined him for 16 games.Jimmy Vesey, Brady Skjei and Ryan Strome scored for the Rangers, who lost their second straight New York Islanders Hoodies Authentic , ending a seven-game winning streak on home ice. Kevin Hayes had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev finished with 23 saves.Trailing 1-0, the Capitals came out with increased intensity in the second period and scored three goals while outshooting the Rangers 15-9.“You can’t take a period off against anyone, let alone the defending Stanley Cup champions,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “If you’re going to have a chance to beat them, you’re going to have to stay on them for 60 minutes. You can have lapses where you don’t play well, but they can’t be 20-minute lapses.”Just 31 seconds after Skjei doubled the Rangers’ lead, Dowd tipped Carlson’s shot for his second to pull the Capitals back within one midway through the second.Vrana then tied it with his sixth as he beat Georgiev with a backhander with 3:33 left.Ovechkin put the Capitals ahead, tipping Carlson’s pass from the right side with 30 seconds left. It was Ovechkin’s 17th goal, tying him for the league lead with Boston’s David Pastrnak and Buffalo’s Jeff Skinner.“(Dowd’s) goal is huge,” Wilson said. “We know when we’re not playing the way we want to. We know when it has to turn around. … They’ve been playing some good hockey at home, so it was big for us to be able to do that.”Near the midpoint of the second, Skjei scored on a rebound of Brendan Smith’s shot that came off the end boards and right to him on the outside edge of the left circle at 9:39 to make it 2-0 on the Rangers’ first shot on goal of the period.Vesey gave New York a 1-0 lead less than 15 seconds after coming out of the penalty box near the midpoint of the first. Hayes brought the puck up the left side on a 2-on-1 rush New York Islanders Hats Authentic , cut toward the net and dropped the puck back to Jesper Fast, who tapped it to the right, and a trailing Vesey put it under a sprawled Copley’s left pad for his eighth at 9:12.NOTES: Ovechkin’s goal was his 624th, pulling one behind Jarome Iginla and Joe Sakic for 15th place on the NHL’s career list. Ovechkin now has 33 goals and 51 points in 54 career games against the Rangers. … The Capitals have outscored opponents 35-23 in the second period. … Capitals also won the first meeting 4-3 in OT at home on Oct. 17. The teams play two more times, Feb. 24 at Washington, and March 3 back at Madison Square Garden. … LW Timothy Gettinger made his NHL debut one day after being called up from Hartford of the AHL. He was sent back down after the game. … Strome now has four goals and 14 points in 19 games against the Capitals.UP NEXTCapitals: At the New York Islanders on Monday night.Rangers: Host Ottawa on Monday night to cap a stretch of five of six at home.