Mikko Rantanen's four-point night lifts Colorado to victory in first game of the season

Colorado kicked off the first game of their regular season on the road in Los Angeles tonight.

They started the year in the win column with a 5-2 victory.

It was the first of three on a long road trip. After a flurry of excitement with the waiver claim of goaltender Ivan Prosvetov and a trade for defenseman Caleb Jones – their opening roster was set.

Notably, Pavel Francouz and Gabriel Landeskog were added to the long-term injured reserve list ahead of game one. Landeskog’s absence was expected, but to lose Francouz for an indefinite amount of time was a tough note to start on.

Caleb Jones remained with the Colorado Eagles group – for now.

Riley Tufte and Justus Annunen were recalled just before the trip, and the Avs set off for LA with six defensemen, thirteen forwards, and three goaltenders.

Andrew Cogliano did not dress tonight, but his absence is not a concern. He affirmed that he is fully healed from the neck fracture that sidelined him from the Seattle-Colorado playoff series last year. Now it’s just a matter of feeling confident before returning to game action.

Alexandar Georgiev earned his first of many starts, and the opening night lineup looked like this:

Drouin – MacKinnon – Rantanen

Lehkonen – Johansen – Nichushkin

Wood – Colton – Tatar

MacDermid – Olofsson – O’Connor 

Toews, Makar

Girard, Byram

Johnson, Manson

Justus Annunen backed up Georgiev in net, and Prosvetov joined the team for his first morning skate earlier today.

The first period was a bit sloppy for Colorado, but their stars certainly showed up. The top line looked dangerous. Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring with a terrific shot from the bottom of the right circle. Mikko Rantanen made the smart play from behind the goal line after Jonathan Drouin’s persistence helped to win the puck battle to feed Rantanen.

They cleaned things up a bit more in the second period. Early into its start, Cale Makar showed just the right amount of patience and beat Cam Talbot on the powerplay.

Mikko Rantanen lifted the Avs to 3-0 with a terrific shot from a tough angle at the bottom of the left circle.

Ryan Johansen helped the Avs to regain some of their footing in the faceoff battle and they controlled possession more than the first period, but LA still had the edge in five-on-five possession.

The Kings had last-change and were matchup hunting the Avs. Down a forward, LA’s first and second lines ate a lot of minutes against Colorado’s depth.

Ross Colton’s line went up against Anze Kopitar and Phil Danault a good portion of this game, but the ragtag crew of Colton, Miles Wood, and Tomas Tatar didn’t skimp on the effort.

A chaotic sequence wherein Colorado’s D both fell led to a goal from LA’s Carl Grundstrom at the top of the crease.

In the final seconds of the second period, an overzealous MacKinnon and Drouin took off toward the offensive blueline while Kopitar lifted the puck into the Avs’ end. Quinton Byfield collected the puck and attempted to pass it to Adrian Kempe at the netfront, but Cale Makar’s stick accidentally pushed the puck into his own net by mistake.

It was then a 3-2 game.

Also overzealous, Bowen Byram took two penalties within a minute of each other and put the Avs down a man early into the third period.

However in between Byram’s second penalty, Colorado’s top guys added necessary insurance. MacKinnon won the footrace, Rantanen won the board battle with skill, and Makar passed to Jack Johnson who shot from up high.

Rantanen tipped it in to make it 4-2.

Colorado’s penalty kill remained perfect in all five situations tonight. During the final two kills – otherwise known as the “Byram sequence” – the Avs blocked six shots with a couple blocks coming from Ross Colton alone.

Colton also had a shot on net in the final kill. His PK efforts were gutsy: dropping to his knee to make the block, getting his stick in lanes. Even though he didn’t PK in Tampa, he assimilated to the Avs kill quickly and efficiently.

His efforts didn’t end there – Colton was a puck hound. He had three shots on net, two takeaways, and played a vital role in the final goal.

Colton won the draw against Kopitar and Tatar lifted the puck up ice.

Colton skated hard to win the puck in the offensive zone. Adrian Kempe was coming for him, but he dove to the ice to sweep the puck to Wood skating through the slot. All Wood had to do from there was tap it into the empty net to make it 5-2.

It was Wood’s first goal as a member of the Colorado Avalanche and certainly not the last we’ve seen of Ross Colton’s heroics. That empty net goal was the final nail in the coffin and Colorado took their first victory of the season.

Speaking of heroes, Alexandar Georgiev was excellent in net. He faced 36 shots, 11 of which came on the penalty kill, and stopped 34 making for a 0.944 save percentage on the night. His only two goals-against were in high-danger situations – one of which was especially weird late in the second period.

He tracked the puck well and was up to the task when the Kings led the shots battle through two periods and created more high-danger opportunities than the Avs.

Mikko Rantanen was the next best player of the night. The way in which he can find seams from anywhere on the ice or take shots that bend defenders and goaltenders to his will is special to watch. Working alongside MacKinnon and Makar, the stars led Colorado from the top tonight.

There were obvious growing pains in the middle of the lineup, but they showed promise. Val Nichushkin had a good night, Johansen won draws, and Lehkonen created some nice chances. The effort of the third line begs for some patience to allow things to come together.

Colorado has a couple days break before their next game in San Jose, so they’ll have time to rest, recalibrate, and break down film from this game to tinker with in practice.

It’s one down with 81 more to go.