Final: Avalanche 6, Bruins 3

DENVER -- Down three goals, the Bruins nearly pulled off a dramatic comeback, but fell just shy as the Avalanche finished with a 6-3 victory Wednesday night at Pepsi Center.



Observations from the third period

Anton Khudobin started the third period. Starter Tuukka Rask finished with 22 saves on 26 shots before he was given the hook after the second period. Khudobin did not allow a goal and made a few timely saves, especially late in the period with Boston trailing by one goal. Colorado's fifth and sixth goals were an empty-netters.

The Bruins' fourth line of Danton Heinen, Sean Kuraly and Tim Schaller scored the team's second goal by crashing the net and shoveling the puck past goalie Semyon Varlamov. It was Schaller's first goal of the season.

Torey Krug's power-play goal cut Boston's deficit to one goal at 12:57.

Discipline and lack of communication seemed to be an issue all night for the Bruins.

Late in the third period, Anders Bjork went to the locker room.

Observations from the second period

Tuukka Rask saw a barrage of shots in the second period and the Avalanche scored three times en route to a 4-1 lead after two periods. He's been fighting the puck tonight, but it hasn't helped the Bruins haven't been able to stay out of the box.

Adam McQuaid was forced to answer the bell after he was called for cross-checking Colorado's Travis Jost, who needed to be helped off the ice. The Avalanche scored on the power play for a 3-1 lead and on the ensuing faceoff, McQuaid dropped the gloves with Nikita Zadorov. Jost did return to the game.

Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy begin the second as a pair. Brando Carlo is playing with Kevan Miller.

The Bruins gave up a few odd-man rushes and the Avalanche took advantage, scoring their second goal.

Observations from the first period

Just when it appeared the Avalanche would end the first with a 1-0 lead, Brad Marchand scored his second of the season to tie it.

Charlie McAvoy yardsaled the Avalanche's Nathan MacKinnon late in the period. It was a heads-up play by McAvoy, who came across and leveled MacKinnon in front of the Bruins' bench.

Rask appears to be fighting the puck a bit in the opening period. Colorado's Alexander Kerfoot scored a nasty goal when he redirected a shot past Rask, who had no chance of stopping the tip.

With Patrice Bergeron sidelined with lower-body injury, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy wanted to try Riley Nash in the middle between Marchand and David Pastrnak. Nash was going into the dirty areas, including in front and nearly scored early in the period.

Cassidy loves to tinker and he did it again midway through the period when he had Marchand with Ryan Spooner and Frank Vatrano. That trio created a sustained forecheck and drew a penalty to give Boston its first power play of the game. Before the end of the period, Marchand was back with Nash and Pastrnak.

Solid backcheck by David Krejci and he prevented a quality scoring chance on his first shift of the period.

Matt Beleskey dropped the gloves with the Avalanche's Mark Barberio at 6:59. Beleskey landed hard on his hand when the two fell to the ice.

It's opening night here and the Avalanche honored the victims of last week's tragedy in Las Vegas with a moment of silence before the game.

Here are the projected line combinations and defensive pairings for tonight:

Forwards

Marchand-Nash-Pastrnak

DeBrusk-Krejci-Bjork

Beleskey-Spooner-Vatrano

Schaller-Kuraly-Heinen

Defense

Chara-Carlo

Krug-McQuaid

Miller-McAvoy

Goalies

Rask

Khudobin