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(Sports Network) - A battle between playoff hopefuls is on tap tonight in Denver as the Colorado Avalanche welcome the Los Angeles Kings to Pepsi Center for the finale of a home-and-home series.

The Kings won the opener Monday in Los Angeles and come into tonight's matchup tied with Nashville for the fifth seed in the Western Conference. Colorado is just two points behind in the seventh spot.

LA has taken both meetings with the Avalanche so far this year, but Colorado has six wins in the last 10 encounters. The Kings have won three of five and five of their last eight in the Mile High City.

Drew Doughty's power-play blast at the 3:40 mark of overtime was the difference in Monday's 4-3 victory over the Kings.

Los Angeles had given up a goal with 6.6 seconds left to tie the game, but Ruslan Salei took a cross-checking penalty at the 3:21 mark in the extra frame and Doughty made him pay as his huge blast from the top of the right circle beat Craig Anderson cleanly for the win.

Former Avalanche winger Ryan Smyth scored twice and Wayne Simmonds scored the other goal, while Anze Kopitar and Jarret Stoll each had two assists for the Kings, who have won two straight.

"This is a big two points," said Smyth. "They battled hard right until the end, and they capitalized with six seconds left. We capitalized on our power play, which was big tonight. It is gut-check time now, and it is important to fight through adversity."

Jonathan Quick finished the game with 18 saves and is expected to get the start again tonight. Quick is 39-21-4 this season and is 3-0 during his career against Colorado.

Peter Mueller had a goal and an assist for the Avs on Monday while Chris Stewart, who has an eight-game point streak, and T.J. Galiardi each added a goal.

Craig Anderson stopped 19 shots in the loss -- the third straight setback for Colorado.

"It's a playoff-type game," said Colorado head coach Joe Sacco. "It had playoff atmosphere written all over it. There was a lot of intensity in the game. I thought our guys responded with a good game defensively which is something we were looking for. Unfortunately we didn't come away with the extra point but we did get one. It's something for us to build on."

Anderson is expected to get the start again tonight, but the Avs will not have forward Darcy Tucker on the ice after he was suspended by the NHL for one game. Tucker received the ban for making excessive physical contact on an icing play against LA's Matt Greene on Monday.

The Avalanche enter tonight with a solid 22-11-2 record at home, while Los Angeles is an impressive 21-12-2 as the road club this year.