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The Colorado Avalanche opened a brief two-game road swing with a complete performance.

Trying to build off that, the Avalanche (13-13-2) complete their trip on Saturday against the struggling Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center.

Colorado managed only one goal in losing two straight heading into Thursday's game at San Jose. The Avalanche responded with one of their best efforts of the season as Joe Sakic and defenseman Brett Clark each had two goals in a 5-2 victory.

"We needed this one," Sakic said. "We didn't play very well the other night, and I thought right from the get-go, guys were hungry, were strong on the puck. You really have to be against that team, because they've got a great hockey club over there. We seemed to get the jump on them."

Sakic has scored points in six of his last seven road games, and has three goals and eight assists in that span. He also has a goal and three assists in two games versus Los Angeles this season with the Avalanche going 1-1.

In 54 career games against the Kings, Sakic has scored 31 goals - 14 on the power play - and added 38 assists. He also has four goals and seven assists in a six-game points streak versus them.

Clark notched his first career two-goal game and also assisted on Brett McLean's goal in the second period.

"We knew we had to come out with an intense effort against these guys," said Clark, who is in his eighth season. "It's a very nice feeling for me, but I owe a lot to those players out there with me."

Los Angeles (10-16-4), meanwhile, is looking for some answers to poor play. The team held a players-only meeting after a 4-1 loss to Nashville on Thursday in which they managed a season-low 21 shots.

"We didn't play with the desperation that I know we can play with," coach Marc Crawford said. "I feel awful about that effort. When you have an effort like that, you really do have to search your souls. And we're going to have to do some serious searching for the entire team."

The Kings turned in back-to-back 41-shot efforts in splitting a grueling home-and-home series with Anaheim before their poor effort Thursday.

Alexander Frolov scored the lone goal for Los Angeles early in the third period. Frolov has scored three goals in his last two games, and is the team's leading goal scorer with 17 - seven off his career high set in 2003-04.

Michael Cammalleri has gone three straight games without a point, matching his worst stretch of the season from Oct. 23-27. He had seven points in a five-game points streak before that.

Cammalleri had three assists and Sean Avery scored twice - once on the power play and once short-handed - in a 6-5 victory at Denver on Nov. 7.

This is the Avalanche's first trip to Staples Center this season. Colorado was winless in four straight visits to Los Angeles before Peter Budaj stopped 21 shots in a 5-0 victory on March 20.