Along the south shore of picturesque Lake Tahoe, the Colorado Avalanche was set to play an outdoor afternoon affair at the foot of snow-capped mountains and beside North America's largest alpine lake.

The beautiful, bluebird day turned out to be to much for the manmade rink to handle, and the contest against the Vegas Golden Knights was interrupted due to challenging ice conditions resulting from extreme sun.

Colorado rolled with the punches though and earned a 3-2 victory against Vegas on Saturday evening when the final whistle blew more than 10 hours after the initial puck drop.  

Nathan MacKinnon factored on all three Colorado Avalanche goals in its 3-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe on Saturday at Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline, Nevada.

Samuel Girard tallied in his return to the lineup in the first period, his second career NHL outdoor game goal. The first period ended at 1:55 p.m. MT, then the game underwent an eight-hour delay in the interest of player safety due to ice conditions before resuming with the second period at 10:03 p.m. MT.

The Colorado Avalanche's game against the Vegas Golden Knights as part of the 2021 NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe has been delayed after the first period in the interest of player safety due to ice conditions. The contest is scheduled to resume with the expectation of completing the second and third periods at 10 p.m. MT on NBCSN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports.

The Avs have a 1-0 lead through the first period with a 17-7 edge in shots on goal. Defenseman Samuel Girard scored the lone goal of the game for Colorado at 2:58 of the frame with assists from Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

The following are the weather-related game procedure contingencies for Bridgestone NHL Outdoors Saturday between the Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche.

For the third time in franchise history and for the second consecutive season, the Colorado Avalanche will play an outdoor matchup as the team takes on the Vegas Golden Knights this afternoon on the 18th fairway of the Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline, Nevada.

Colorado hosted the Detroit Red Wings in the 2016 Stadium Series at Coors Field (5-3 loss) and the Los Angeles Kings a year ago at the 2020 Stadium Series at the U.S. Air Force Academy (3-1 loss). The Avalanche is the fifth team to play an outdoor game in consecutive seasons and the first since Toronto in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

The Avalanche is expected to have a few players return to the lineup in the open-air matchup as forwards Matt Calvert, Tyson Jost, Gabriel Landeskog and defensemen Samuel Girard and Cale Makar are all eligible to play.  

The Colorado Avalanche heads outside to the Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline, Nevada, to take on the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday in the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe game. The matchup is the third contest of a four-game set between the clubs.

After falling 1-0 in the first meeting of the series on Sunday, the Avs responded with a 3-2 victory over the Golden Knights on Tuesday. Nazem Kadri's late-game heroics earned Colorado its eighth (8-4-1) win of the campaign as he tallied the winning goal with 41 seconds left in the third period. Nathan MacKinnon notched the first marker of the contest off a slick feed from Mikko Rantanen, while Brandon Saad (one goal, one assist) and Joonas Donskoi (two assists) both registered multi-point efforts. Netminder Philipp Grubauer stopped 27-of-29 shots, collecting his fifth victory in his last six starts.

They had seen pictures and digital renderings of what an ice rink on a golf course just off the south shore of Lake Tahoe would look like, but the Colorado Avalanche players finally got to view the setup themselves and soak it in for the first time.

"Hard to describe really," said Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. "It's a really cool feeling. Obviously the surroundings kind of speak for themselves, you see that in pictures, but it really doesn't do it justice."

At the Nevada-California border, surrounded by mountains and on the south shore of Lake Tahoe, the Colorado Avalanche practiced in the open air on Friday.

It was the only time that the team will be on the outdoor rink before competing against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday afternoon in the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe event.

The weekend matinee will be the third-straight meeting between Colorado and Vegas and the clubs have split the first two matchups, both one-goal contests. Vegas won 1-0 on Sunday before Colorado picked up a 3-2 victory at T-Mobile Arena, but Saturday's outing will very likely feature a different lineup for the Avs.

The NHL is holding two regular-season outdoor games at Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline, Nevada: the Avalanche and Golden Knights will meet in Bridgestone NHL Outdoors Saturday on Feb. 20, while the Bruins and Flyers will face off in Honda NHL Outdoors Sunday on Feb. 21.

Below are some miscellaneous stats, notes and numbers of the matchups.

The Colorado Avalanche has played in the league's outdoor game spectacles twice before, skating in front of capacity crowds in stadiums close to home in Denver and Colorado Springs.

What it will do next will be something the Avalanche players have never experienced at the NHL level. In fact, it's something that hasn't been done in league history.