Colorado began the NHL season with a scoreline that will not be mistaken for a routine first night. The Avalanche beat the Los Angeles Kings 8-4 at Ball Arena on Wednesday, scoring more goals in a season opener than at any previous point in the franchise's history. Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen scored twice each, while Brock Nelson supplied a goal and two assists. The margin looked comfortable at the finish, but the route to it exposed a remarkably uneven special-teams game.
Colorado converted four of five power-play opportunities and killed all four Los Angeles advantages. Usually those figures would suggest a tidy night whenever the number of skaters changed. Instead, the Kings scored two short-handed goals while Colorado had the extra player. They were the only Los Angeles goals in the second period, and each threatened to turn the game's momentum. The Avalanche's attacking advantage ultimately outweighed that vulnerability, but it is the important qualification to a dazzling opening result.
A fast lead and an immediate reply
Nelson opened the scoring on the power play at 6:33 of the first period. Brian Dumoulin equalised for the Kings at 15:14, leaving Colorado to rebuild rather than simply defend an early lead. Parker Kelly put the home side 2-1 up at 17:58, three seconds after a Los Angeles power play had expired. That detail matters: the goal did not count as a short-handed score, even though it followed a penalty kill almost immediately.
MacKinnon made it 3-1 just 23 seconds into the second period, converting during a five-on-three advantage. The apparent breathing room lasted barely a minute. Joel Armia scored short-handed at 1:28 to bring Los Angeles back within one. Colorado did not let that interruption set the pace. MacKinnon's second, at 8:33, restored a two-goal margin, and Nicolas Roy added another at 16:01.
Even at 5-2, the Kings found an unusual route back into the contest. Trevor Moore scored their second short-handed goal at 17:50. Colorado still had the power play, and Lehkonen used it to answer at 18:34. The pair of goals in the same advantage illustrated the whole evening: Los Angeles could break against the extra skater, but Colorado could also turn sustained pressure into a goal before the penalty expired. The Avalanche took a 6-3 lead into the final period.
Four power-play goals, two short-handed concessions
The official game sheet separates the two sides of this story. Colorado's eight goals comprised four at even strength and four on the power play. Los Angeles scored two at even strength and two short-handed, but none on its four power plays. The Avalanche were outshot 31-29, so the eight-goal return was not the product of a huge shots-on-goal lead. It was a night of sharp finishing and high-value advantage play, alongside two glaring moments of exposure when Colorado was supposed to have the safer numbers.
That distinction matters for any early assessment of the teams. A 4-for-5 power play is an excellent single-game return, not a sustainable seasonal rate to assume after one fixture. Nor does a perfect 4-for-4 penalty kill mean Colorado defended flawlessly in every situation. The short-handed goals came while Colorado's own power play was on the ice. Those are different phases of play, and rolling them into one vague claim about special-teams dominance would miss the central tension of the match.
Mackenzie Blackwood's 26 saves were another part of the outcome, while Darcy Kuemper made 21 at the other end. Colorado scored eight times on 29 shots, according to the official match summary. That high-scoring efficiency does not establish what either goalkeeper or defensive unit will look like over the next stretch of the season.
Why the record is significant
Colorado's club account identifies the eight goals as a franchise record for a season-opening game. It also credits 13 Avalanche players with at least one point, eight of them with multiple points. That breadth gives the result more substance than a single forward taking over: MacKinnon and Lehkonen each finished with two goals, Nelson contributed three points, and Kelly and Roy joined them among the scorers. Gabriel Landeskog later added the seventh.
The third period briefly offered Los Angeles another opening. Artemi Panarin reduced the deficit to 6-4 at 11:51, scoring during a delayed Colorado penalty with an extra Kings attacker on the ice. The Avalanche did not have to nurse that two-goal lead for long. Landeskog scored at 14:03, and Lehkonen's second power-play goal at 15:06 completed the record eight. Colorado scored the final two goals after Panarin's intervention and removed any prospect of a late one-goal finish.
For Los Angeles, the result was its first regular-season game under coach Peter Laviolette. The Kings' official account acknowledges the short-handed replies but cannot disguise eight goals conceded, four of them on Colorado advantages. One opening match does not define a new coach's team, particularly away to a side that had already eliminated the Kings in the previous season's first playoff round. It does, however, leave clear questions about discipline and penalty-killing structure before the next fixture.
Colorado hosts St Louis on Saturday. The immediate test is whether the Avalanche can retain the creativity and distribution that produced 13 different point scorers while preventing an opponent from finding open ice during their own power plays. For the Kings, the task is to extract something useful from two opportunistic short-handed finishes without treating those moments as compensation for the wider defensive result.
The US Sports hub follows the wider NHL season, and the News archive carries the latest cross-sport results. This is a striking first-game score, not a reliable prediction of a team's season or a betting outcome. Anyone who chooses to bet should set a limit they can afford and read our responsible gambling guidance before making a decision.