3 major takeaways from Colorado Avalanche's 5-1 win over Utah Hockey Club

It was a milestone night for the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, as they made their first-ever trip to Salt Lake City to play a regular season game. They faced the Utah Hockey Club, marking their first matchup since the team relocated from Arizona and changed their name from the Arizona Coyotes.

For the Avalanche, they've enjoyed a complete reversal of fortunes following what was a truly miserable start to the 2024-25 season with four straight losses. Thanks to their 5-1 victory at Delta Center, they've returned to the .500 mark and now stand at 4-4 through eight games; the Utah HC have now dropped to 4-3-1.

The Avalanche got the scoring going midway through the first period thanks to a power-play tally from Ross Colton, his seventh goal of the season.

Defenseman Cale Makar added to the lead, scoring what would stand up as the game-winning goal late in the first period with his third of the year.

The Avalanche continued pressing in the second period thanks to goals from Casey Mittelstadt along with the first-career goal from Ivan Ivan:

While Lawson Crouse would spoil the shutout bid of Avalanche goaltender Justus Annunen with just under five minutes remaining in regulation, a goal from Joel Kiviranta capped the scoring and gave Colorado a convincing win.

Annunen finished with 25 saves, while Utah HC goaltender Karel Vejmelka finished with 21 saves.

As the Avalanche celebrate their fourth straight win after beginning the season 0-4, what are the three biggest takeaways from Thursday's game against the Utah HC?

#3. A strong performance from Justus Annunen

Colorado's goaltending had been struggling to begin the season, as Alexander Georgiev's goals-against-average is still a subpar 4.99 with an equally concerning .810 save percentage.

However, Annunen was sharp all game long against Utah, repelling multiple high-percentage chances and playing a role in killing off all three of their power-play opportunities.

#2. Cale Makar continued his strong start

When the Avalanche weren't amassing points in the standings at the beginning of the year, their top defenseman constantly found the scoresheet.

With his goal, Makar has now registered at least one point in each of Colorado's eight games in 2024-25.

#1. The health of Ross Colton is a concern

With seven goals already on the season, Colton is on pace to easily break his previous career-high of 22 tallies while with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021-22. However, he departed Thursday's game with what the team described as an upper-body injury and did not return to action.

The Avalanche will continue their schedule and look to finally have more wins than losses in their record when they take on the Ottawa Senators on Sunday at Ball Arena in Denver.