LOS ANGELES — The Kings kicked off the season with at least a puncher’s chance at the franchise’s third Stanley Cup title, but they were dropped by a bonafide heavyweight on opening night.

Mikko Rantanen had two goals and a pair of assists, Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists and Colorado handed the Kings a 5-2 defeat on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena. Cale Makar and Miles Wood (empty net) also scored for the Avalanche.

Winger Carl Grundstrom and center Quinton Byfield scored goals for the Kings, while Cam Talbot stopped 31 of 35 shots in his Kings debut, with all four of the goals he allowed coming on very challenging shots.

Colorado’s big three – MacKinnon, Rantanen and Makar – accounted for all four goals against Talbot and combined for nine points before Wood slammed the door. Alexandar Georgiev made 35 saves. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup two seasons ago and opened this campaign as the favorite to win it at most sportsbooks.

Though the third period began with the Kings enjoying a bit of wind at their backs from a buzzer-beating goal before the second intermission, they found themselves trailing by multiple goals again five minutes into the frame. Former Kings defenseman Jack Johnson’s slow but steady shot from a sharp angle to the near side was redirected far side in textbook fashion by Rantanen. Wood scored into the vacated cage with just less than four minutes to play.

The game unraveled somewhat early in the second period, as the Kings gave up two high-skill goals in fewer than four minutes to kick off the frame. First, it was Makar adjusting his shooting angle to create a four-man screen that gave Talbot next to no chance at a save while shorthanded. Then it was some five-on-five magic from Rantanen, whose sharp-angled shot from in sight sailed over Talbot’s head and into the net for a 3-0 advantage.

They pushed back with their first goal of the young season when Grundstrom did Grundstrom things. The winger who former Kings captain Dustin Brown affectionately named “The Tonka Truck” barreled into Johnson on the forecheck, initiating a sequence that swiftly culminated in his clawing back a goal to make it 3-1 at the 6:18 mark. They halved their deficit with a mere 4.6 seconds left in the frame when Byfield’s centering pass for Adrian Kempe was deflected skyward and into the net for an own goal by Makar.

Related Articles

One positive byproduct of the Kings’ awkward last-second roster shuffling was that winger Alex Laferriere was able to carry the momentum from a strong preseason into his NHL debut, which would not have been possible with a full complement of wingers. Not only did the 21-year-old Harvard product look every bit an NHL player, he dropped his gloves to fight, and dropped Colorado’s Logan O’Connor. It was Laferriere’s first fight at any level of competition.

The Kings started the game with some of that same vigor but found themselves ceding the only goal of the first period.

The Kings mounted an early 6-2 shot advantage and drew the game’s first penalty. But seconds after Colorado killed it, they scored on a play when MacKinnon vanished in the far corner of the offensive zone and reappeared in the low slot for a feed from Rantanen for a goal.

More to come on this story.