Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals and added an assist for the Colorado Avalanche, who finished off the host Los Angeles Kings with a 5-1 victory Sunday to sweep the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.

MacKinnon, who led the NHL with 53 goals in the regular season, got his first goals of the postseason. Cale Makar, Nicolas Roy and Devon Toews also scored for the Avalanche. Gabriel Landeskog added two assists in the win.

Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves for the Avalanche, who will advance to play the winner of the Dallas Stars-Minnesota Wild series that’s tied 2-2.

Joel Edmundson registered his first goal of the series for the Kings, with assists coming from Adrian Kempe and Alex Laferriere.

Anton Forsberg stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced for Los Angeles.

The Kings received two power-play opportunities in the first 10 minutes of the contest. However, it was the Avalanche who struck first, capitalizing on their first chance with the advantage with 6:47 remaining in the first.

MacKinnon’s one-timer from the left faceoff circle came off a feed from Nazem Kadri. It trickled in as Forsberg could not close the five-hole in time.

Makar doubled the lead with 14:12 left in the second. He stopped Scott Laughton’s attempted clearance at the point and turned around Taylor Ward, who was playing in his first Stanley Cup playoff game, as he skated into the right circle and beat Forsberg on the short side for his second of the series.

While Colorado padded its lead, the Kings went 11:38 between shots on Wedgewood. That prompted the Kings to shuffle their lines, and Edmundson broke the ice with 6:17 remaining in the second.

It became a two-goal lead again with 16:47 left in the third on Roy’s second of the series, as he put away a rebound created by Forsberg’s denial of Artturi Lehkonen.

Less than three minutes later, Toews got his first from MacKinnon and Landeskog.

With their season on the brink, the Kings pulled Forsberg with 5:48 remaining. MacKinnon finished the scoring 20 seconds later.

The loss was the final game for Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who announced his plans to retire after this season. As the game neared its end, Kings fans chanted their thanks to Kopitar, who played 20 seasons for the Kings and led them to two Stanley Cups.

–Field Level Media

Chase Dollander threw seven scoreless innings in the longest outing of his career as the visiting Colorado Rockies completed a doubleheader sweep of the sinking New York Mets with a 3-0 win in Sunday’s nightcap.

Four Rockies pitchers combined on a four-hitter in a 3-1 win in the opener. The doubleheader was necessitated by a rainout Saturday.

Troy Johnston had an RBI single in the second inning of the nightcap and Hunter Goodman hit a two-run homer one inning later for Colorado, which swept a series from the Mets in New York for the first time since 2018 to improve to 13-16.

The Rockies didn’t record their 13th win last season until June 12, when they improved to 13-55 on their way to a 43-119 finish.

The Mets have lost 15 of 17 – their worst 17-game stretch since a 2-15 skid from Aug. 28 through Sept, 13, 2004.

New York scored one run or fewer in a traditional doubleheader Sunday for the first time since Oct, 3, 2015, when the Mets scored one run while being swept by the Washington Nationals.

Dollander (3-2), who made his first start of the season after six long relief outings, allowed five hits and two walks while striking out seven over a career-high 105 pitches.

The scoreless start was the first of Dollander’s career, though he threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings as a bulk reliever and earned the win in a 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Apr. 16.

Dollander wriggled out of a two-on, two-out jam in the first when he got MJ Melendez to fly out. Carson Benge and Ronny Mauricio singled to open the fifth, but Tyrone Taylor lined into a double play before Dollander retired Bo Bichette on a grounder.

Seth Halvorsen threw a hitless eighth before Zach Agnos worked around Melendez’s one-out double in the ninth to notch his second save.

The struggling Kodai Senga (0-4) took the loss after allowing three runs on three hits and three walks while striking out three in 2 2/3 innings. Senga has given up 17 runs (16 earned) over 8 1/3 innings in his last three starts.

–Field Level Media

Carson Hocevar told his fans on Instagram during the week he would win at Talladega Superspeedway.

He finally did his part to perfection on Sunday.

The Spire Motorsport driver recorded his first NASCAR Cup Series win, pulling away from Chris Buescher off the final turn in a three-lap shootout to win the wreck-ridden Jack Link’s 500 in Talladega, Ala.

The high-speed, 188-lap drafting race was interrupted by a chaotic accident on Lap 115 in Stage 2 that eliminated many competitors, but the two drivers ran side-by-side until Erik Jones, running third, wrecked with seven laps left.

Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet then beat Buescher’s No. 17 Ford by 0.114 seconds for his first Cup win in his 91st start, becoming the 13th driver to notch his first-ever victory at the Alabama track.

As cars wrecked coming to the final flag, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Zane Smith navigated their way to finish third through fifth, respectively.

Hocevar celebrated by sitting on his Chevy’s door, with his body halfway hanging out, and waved to the fans as he slowly drove by the flagstand then pointed the car nose-first against the wall and did a celebratory burnout.

But it took a moment or two to get it right.

“I’ve had this thought up for a while and I’ve messed it up every which way not to do it,” said Hocevar, who led Chevy to its fifth win in the past nine starts at Talladega and second overall in 2026. “I didn’t care if it took me 20 minutes or whatever, I was going to figure out how to do it.”

The 23-year-old Portage, Mich., native took to the social media platform this week and told his fans a win was in store.

“I knew we were going to win, and we did,” he said.

In typical Talladega fashion, the 2.66-mile superspeedway produced several different leaders moving back and forth, including Chad Finchum, making his second start in 2026, coming from the back in his No. 66 Ford along with Cody Ware and leading his first NASCAR laps as the race became 10 circuits old.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs led after the field pitted in three different large groups — a wild session full of mistakes, which featured JGR teammates Denny Hamlin cited for speeding and Chase Briscoe for a safety violation as he roared the pits.

After the varying pit strategies and infractions played out in Stage 1, Ryan Preece’s No. 60 took the checkers for the top points as RFK Racing led the charge. Teammates Brad Keselowski and Buescher were second and fourth, respectively, while Joey Logano was third, Ryan Blaney fifth and Josh Berry sixth — all in Fords.

The Big One, Talladega’s massive crash, occurred on Lap 115 in Stage 2 as the front of the pack got together when second-place Ross Chastain turned leader Bubba Wallace to start the season’s biggest track mayhem by far.

While the front four cars of Chastain, Preece, Buescher and Christopher Bell all drove away unscathed as bedlam unfolded behind them, 26 cars were sent spinning and sliding in a wreck that forced a red-flag condition of nearly 10 minutes.

In hard two-wide racing to end Stage 2, Chastain held off Bell while Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Todd Gilliland rounded out the first five under the checkers.

–Field Level Media