Mikko Rantanen scored a hat trick and Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Samuel Girard each had two assists for Colorado. Alexandar Georgiev allowed five goals on 16 shots before being replaced by Justus Annunen, who allowed two goals on four shots.

“There’s no question about it, the biggest problem was the hasty coverage and getting back on the ice after a couple of goals,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They scored four goals in the rush. … The number of scoring opportunities we conceded was not a problem. We did some good things throughout the game. Every time we got back into the game we made another mistake. And every mistake we made ended up in the back of our net.”

It was the season opener for each team.

Rantanen gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 10:48 of the first period with a one-timer from above the left circle.

Olofsson tied the score 1-1 just 27 seconds later when his wrister shot from a tight angle under the left circle to beat Georgiev to the side.

“I saw him cheat a little bit. I saw (Nicolas Roy) fighting in front of the net, and I thought the goalkeeper was expecting a pass,” Olofsson said. “So I just tried to hit the net, and it went in.”

Barbashev put Vegas ahead 2-1 with a shot from the right circle at 6:32 p.m.

Stone pushed the score to 3-1 just 25 seconds later, finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Eichel.