Nathan MacKinnon collected two assists to become Colorado’s all-time points leader, leading the visiting Avalanche to a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings in the season opener for both teams on Tuesday.
Martin Necas scored two goals for the Avalanche, who lost 8-4 in their season opener a year ago against the Vegas Golden Knights in Las Vegas.
Artturi Lehkonen had a goal and an assist, Sam Malinski also scored, Cale Makar added two assists and Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves for Colorado.
Kevin Fiala scored a late 5-on-3 goal and Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves for the Kings.
Necas, Malinski and Lehkonen scored in the second period to give the Avalanche a 3-0 lead.
The Kings had just killed the game’s first power play when MacKinnon took the puck behind the Los Angeles net during a delayed slashing penalty and passed it out front to Necas above the right hashmarks. Necas skated into the right circle and scored with a wrist shot for a 1-0 lead 48 seconds into the middle frame.
The assist marked the 1,016th career point for MacKinnon, moving him past Joe Sakic for the most in team history since the franchise moved from Quebec to Denver ahead of the 1995-96 season.
Colorado extended the lead to 2-0 at 7:00.
Los Angeles attempted to rim the puck out of its zone after a dump-in, but Malinski pinched along the wall at the left point. The third-year defenseman took a couple of strides forward before firing a wrist shot through traffic and into the net.
MacKinnon started the third scoring play by again taking the puck behind the Los Angeles net. He came out the other side and fed Makar, who drove to the net and took a shot that was saved by Kuemper. The rebound came out to Lehkonen, who scored for a 3-0 lead at 14:42.
Necas netted a power-play goal with a wrist shot from the right circle after a faceoff win to make it 4-0 at 10:43 of the third period.
The Kings spoiled the shutout when Fiala scored with a one-timer from the right circle during the two-man advantage to make it 4-1 at 15:06.
Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog played 11:12 and had an even plus-minus rating in his first regular-season game since March 10, 2022. The 32-year-old team captain missed three years because of a knee injury before returning in the first round of the playoffs last April.
–Field Level Media
