LAS VEGAS — The Colorado Avalanche is working with a thinner margin for error to start the 2024-25, but no missing forwards would have made up for the deficiencies on opening night.
Alexandar Georgiev yielded five goals before being pulled, and the Avs found a cornucopia of ways to derail any chance at a comeback despite a Mikko Rantanen hat trick in an 8-4 loss Wednesday night to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.
The Avalanche allowed goals 27, 25 and 94 seconds after one was scored. They allowed a goal in the final 63 seconds of the first and second periods. When the power play tried to drag Colorado back into this one twice, the Avs took penalties and Vegas scored with the extra man as well.
“It was terrible,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Every time we got back in the game, we gave up another goal right away on a mistake. We’re going to need to mix in a save on those, no question. Every time we scratched and clawed our way back, we gave up another one.
“It’s frustrating, because you feel like you’re working twice as hard. The timing of it was brutal.”
Georgiev will be the immediate concern. He finished the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a strong stretch of performances, but this one looked more like Game 1 in Winnipeg than the 10 contests that followed.
He didn’t get help on a couple of Vegas’ goals, but there were two, if not three that he needed to be better on.
But there was plenty of blame to spread around. Colorado looked like its formidable self with the puck, particularly when the top line and defense pairing were on the ice. But the defensive breakdowns and penalties didn’t help the goaltending, either.
“It’s one of those nights where every mistake that we make, whether it is no back pressure, giving (away) the middle ice, they’re capitalizing on it,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “It definitely makes it hard. There’s those little things we need to clean up, but I thought there were a lot of positives.”
Rantanen was one of them. He completed his hat trick, all on one-timers, with his second power-play goal at 6:59 of the third period. It was Makar’s second perfect setup with the extra man.
That cut the deficit to 5-4, but the inability to withstand prosperity continued. Each time the Avs tried to get back into the game, they found a way to get themselves back out of it.
Devon Toews was tagged with a double minor for high-sticking, and Vegas scored on Justus Annunen six seconds later. By the end of the night, the Golden Knights had 8 goals on 22 shots. Mark Stone, Viktor Olofsson and Ivan Barbashev all scored twice.
The Avs controlled the play for the first half of the opening period, and Rantanen scored the first goal of the season at 10:48. Nathan MacKinnon collected his 900th career point with a pass to Rantanen for a one-timer on one knee from the left circle.
After that, it was all Vegas to finish the period. Olofsson answered Rantanen’s tally 27 seconds later with a shot from outside the left circle that appeared to fool Georgiev. The Golden Knights’ top line scored twice on the same shift — both against the Avs’ top trio and defense pairing.
Colorado lost Barbashev at the far side of the net after a nifty give-and-go at the blue line by Vegas to gain the offensive zone. Then Stone scored 25 seconds later on a counterattack and with 1:03 left in the opening period the Golden Knights suddenly had a 3-1 advantage.
“We gave up two easy ones at the end of the (first) period and the momentum kind of shifted right there,” Rantanen said. “I felt like every time we got close to them, right away they scored one back. Defensively, we’ve got to look at it and everybody’s got to be better.”
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MacKinnon made a great play to corral the puck and draw a penalty in the middle frame, then Colorado’s three amigos capitalized. Rantanen scored his second of the night on a one-timer from Makar and MacKinnon at 4:15 of the second.
Vegas countered immediately with a long shift in the Colorado end, and Zach Whitecloud’s shot from the right point beat Georgiev to the glove side to restore the two-goal deficit.
Casey Mittelstadt clawed one back late in the second. He put home the rebound of a Samuel Girard shot at 17:32. But the Avs couldn’t sustain it.
Miles Wood took a penalty 35 seconds later, and after a long power-play possession Olofsson scored his second of the night with 13.7 left in the period. It was another shot from a distance that beat Georgiev to his glove side, and it was the last one he saw on opening night.
“(The goaltending) wasn’t good enough,” Bednar said. “But our game (as a team) wasn’t good enough.”
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