Pavel Dorofeyev scored his League-leading 10th goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Dylan Coghlan, Brett Howden, and Nic Dowd also scored for the Golden Knights, the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division. Mitch Marner and Tomas Hertl each had an assist.
Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog scored for the Avalanche, the No. 1 seed from the Central Division and Western Conference. Nathan MacKinnon had an assist, and Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves.
Colorado defenseman Cale Makar missed the game with an undisclosed injury.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is at Ball Arena on Friday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).
Coghlan gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 12:29 of the second period after his wrist shot from the high slot went in clean five-hole. Brandon Saad fed him in stride as he entered the zone, setting up the play. It was Coghlan’s first goal since Dec. 17, 2021, against the New York Rangers.
Dorofeyev extended his goal streak to four games with a power-play goal to make 2-0 at 15:02. He wristed Marner’s pass short side inside the post from the inside corner of the right circle. Marner took the puck into the high slot and cut into the right corner before dropping the puck around Logan O’Connor to Dorofeyev as he skated through the circle. Dorofeyev has six goals during his streak.
Howden pushed it to 3-0 at 1:34 of the third period when he gloved down the rebound of Ben Hutton’s initial shot into the crease and tapped it into the open net. The puck caromed to Hutton to set up a 2-on-1 as he exited the penalty box after Howden blocked Sam Malinski’s point shot.
Nichushkin cut it to 3-1 at 5:53 after he deflected Ross Colton’s centering pass through his legs far side. Nichushkin skated into the zone with possession, dished over to Colton on the right side, and drove the net for the give-and-go finish.
Landeskog’s power-play goal made it 3-2 at 17:39 during a 6-on-4 advantage with Wedgewood pulled for the extra attacker. He one-timed MacKinnon’s cross-crease pass over the right leg of Hart at the left post.
Dowd scored into the empty net at 19:15 for the 4-2 final, negating a potential icing from Jack Eichel’s shot off the end boards by getting to the puck first.
