For the first game out of 84 in the 2026-27 season the Colorado Avalanche hosted the LA Kings at Ball Arena and it won’t soon be forgotten. A 8-4 rout of the Kings saw multiple power play and shorthanded goals against for Colorado and even a Nathan MacKinnon fight.
The Game
Believe it or not but the power play got the Avalanche on the board first, however in pure hilarious fashion it was the second unit that got the job done. Brock Nelson deflected a rebound off of Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper’s mask and
into the net. The Kings then got their own power play and didn’t score on it but seemed to give them momentum. After a couple big saves from Mackenzie Blackwood and good pings, Los Angeles finally broke through. It was defenseman Brian Dumoulin who got a shot through traffic to even the score. The next Kings power play didn’t go well either but Parker Kelly got a strike on a breakaway just after the penalty expired to put Colorado up by one heading into the first intermission.
A five-on-three for Colorado carried over into the second frane and the boys in burgundy made it count as Nathan MacKinnon lit the lamp just 23 seconds into the period. Just one minute later, though, Joel Armia got one back for the Kings shorthanded when he beat Blackwood from distance. At 3-2 was the closest the Kings got because the Avalanche added two more scores in the second period. First, again from MacKinnon and then Nic Roy. On the latter goal Jaden Schwartz was lying open the crease making contact with Kuemper but the Kings didn’t even try to challenge the goal so Colorado was up 5-3 at that point.
But, not so fast. Los Angeles got their second shorthanded goal of the period when Trevor Moore put a snipe on Blackwood. The Avalanche responded when the second power play unit was put back on the ice to finish out the man advantage and Artturi Lehkonen converted from the slot. So the Avalanche were back up by three with a 6-3 score going into the second intermission.
On a particularly bad shift for Josh Manson halfway through the third period where he lost the puck leading to extended offensive zone time for Los Angeles and then took a penalty, it was Artemi Panarin who scored from distance through traffic on the delayed penalty to put the fourth Kings goal on the board.
If ten goals wasn’t exciting enough, there was a Nathan MacKinnon fight against Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke. The Avalanche superstar was the instigator and even landed a few rights in the process. There was still ten minutes to go after the brawl and Gabe Landeskog scored his first goal of the season on rebound after Cale Makar drove to the net. For the eighth and final tally Lehkonen got another power play goal with the second unit and the game finally arrived at a 8-4 Avalanche final.
Takeaways
There was just about everything in this game from good and bad goaltending, power play goals galore and even a couple shorties. It showed the sloppy nature of this game that counted for the first time in September in Avalanche history. There will be a lot of days off this month to tighten up some mistakes and mishaps while building on early successes.
Special teams were certainly special this evening. On one hand the Avalanche got four power play goals, yet gave up two shorthanded. The first unit only converted on a five-on-three and the second unit carried the load with a trio of their own. Two functional power play groups would be ideal but how long is it going to last before just heavily favoring the first unit again?
Upcoming
One more game at home against the St. Louis Blues starting at 7 p.m. MT on Saturday, October 3rd.
