Recap: Avalanche drop opener in Vegas 8-4

The long wait is finally over as the Colorado Avalanche dropped the puck on the 2024-25 season at the home of the Vegas Golden Knights. Both teams are looking to return to the Stanley Cup title after faltering in the postseason last spring. After a slow first half, both teams rushed for goals, but Vegas had the better end and walked away with an 8-4 win.

The game

It was a slow start to this game, but the Avalanche controlled most of the game. Mikko Rantanen went first for the Avalanche at 10:28 with a great shot high in the slot. However, the visitors were unable to maintain the momentum, which would be a theme of the evening.

Victor Oloffson tied the game just 28 seconds later with a shot from a tight angle at the goal line. Before the end of the period, Vegas added two more goals, taking advantage of the defensive zone's lax coverage from the top line. Ivan Barbashev scored at 18:32 and Mark Stone scored just 25 seconds later to give Vegas a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.

The Avalanche got back into the game at the start of the second frame, and then Nathan MacKinnon drew a power play where Rantanen scored his second goal of the night at 4:15. But the momentum didn't last long either, as Zach Whitecloud took advantage of further poor coverage at a line change and scored at 5:49.

The Avalanche had another highlight of the period when Casey Mittelstadt scored first at 17:32. Thirty seconds later, Miles Wood took a bad penalty and the Golden Knights scored again on Oloffson's power play just before the end of the period. With a score of 5:3, Vegas had a commanding lead.

In the third period, the Avalanche tried to create a spark with Justus Annunen in net. Hope didn't last long after it looked like Vegas quickly scored its sixth goal, only to have it wiped out by a high-penalty penalty just before the puck went into the net. Seven minutes after the penalty began, the Avalanche went on the power play, and the capital came to an end when Rantanen scored his third goal of the night at 6:59 for a hat trick.

Not wanting to get rattled, the Avalanche decided to once again throw away any momentum when Devon Toews committed a high-sticking violation four minutes into the game and Vegas scored five seconds into their power play at 8:29, when the The puck bounced off Stone's arm and Vegas was back in the lead, 6-4.

The seventh Vegas goal was certainly the stunner, as Barbashev danced around Sam Girard and fired an incredible backhand shot at 13:53. The game was all but over at that point, so with more than five minutes left, Jared Bednar pulled Annunen in favor of the extra attacker. Perhaps not conceding a goal for four minutes was a small victory, but Brett Howden finally found the net and Vegas made the final score 8-4, securing their first win of the season.

Takeaways

Despite the final result, the game was close at times. The Avalanche got the game-winning first goal and an impressive hat trick from Mikko Rantanen, but continued to lack momentum through poor play and stupid decisions. Colorado canceled out its own success four times after getting back into the game less than two minutes later. In this way it is very difficult to win a game away from home.

Mistakes and sloppiness are to be expected at the start of the season, but the same mistakes and weaknesses are familiar from last season. Overall, the goalkeeping performance wasn't good enough, as Georgiev only lasted two periods of play and conceded five goals on 16 shots. The team defense wasn't good enough either, with Colorado's top players missing several times. These issues go hand in hand and closely resemble the 2023-24 Avalanche.

The bright spot was the NHL debuts of Calum Ritchie, Ivan Ivan and (regular season debut) Nikolai Kovalenko. All three had their mistakes, but also many encouraging moments as they brought energy and created offensive pressure. It remains to be seen what level of commitment these three players have, but this loss was not due to the youth and inexperience in the lineup.

Soon

The Avalanche attend their home opener at Ball Arena on Saturday, October 12th at 7:00 pm MT looking for their first win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.