Alex Tanguay, Mikko Rantanen and Jack Skille scored goals Sunday in the White's 3-1 win against the Burgundy before 4,803 at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus. Joey Hishon scored with 2:32 left in the third period for the Burgundy team.
"We mentioned many times how excited we are about the depth and here it is," coach Patrick Roy said. "There are a lot of things that I like. I'm curious to see a real game. Today was more to show the skills. With the physicality of the games we're going to get an even better indication. I'm curious to see Tuesday night against Anaheim."
Nikita Zadorov, the 6-foot-5 defenseman acquired from Buffalo as part of the Ryan O'Reilly trade, had a solid game while paired with Zach Redmond. He's a strong skater and set up Rantanen's goal with an accurate shot from the point.
"I like his skills," Roy said of Zadorov. "Today was not a physical game, but you could tell he has a great reach. He's joining the rush, he finds a way to be back. Obviously his reach is going to be a huge asset for him. You play against a defenseman with such a reach, it's hard to play against him."
As for Zadorov's skating: "It's something that you don't see very often, guys who are (6-5) skating that way," Roy said. "I mean, it's been impressive."
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Hishon, the Avalanche's first-round pick (No. 17) in 2010, also had a strong game while centering Borna Rendulic and Dennis Everberg.
"One thing I learned last year was that you really have to be strong to play in this league and I really worked on my physicality over the summer," said Hishon, who's listed as 5-10 and 170 pounds. "I feel great. It's been going good.
"You just have to show every day how hard you can work and how hard you can compete. Everyone's got to earn a job. Since I've been here this is the most competitive camp I've been to. We have a lot of depth at every position right across the board."
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Jesse Winchester was listed on the White team roster and he took part in the warmup, but he didn't play. He missed all last season because of concussion issues and played Saturday in a scrimmage with the younger players at the Family Sports Center.
Because Winchester had problems dealing with bright lights and loud music last year, the Avalanche are taking it slow with him. The Magness Arena is much larger than the practice facility and Roy said he would take the same tact Tuesday at the Pepsi Center.
"We don't want to rush anything," Roy said. "It was good for him to do the warmup, see how he feels in a bigger rink and we're probably going to do the same thing on Tuesday night and see how he feels. After that I'm sure there are going to be decisions made."
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Tanguay was in the right circle when he accepted a pass from Nathan MacKinnon and beat goalie Semyon Varlamov with a shot into the top right corner of the net with 28.6 seconds left in the first period for a 1-0 White team lead. Mikhail Grigorenko picked up the second assist.
Rantanen swooped in from the left side to poke a puck in the crease across the goal line at 5:06 of the second period. Gabriel Landeskog fed Zadorov at the left point for a shot that squeezed behind Varlamov.
The only penalty in the first two periods came with 2:18 remaining in the second when Burgundy right wing Blake Comeau nailed MacKinnon with a high stick. MacKinnon remained on the power play, but the White team didn't convert.
Skille, in camp on a professional tryout, put in the rebound of Julien Nantel's shot for a 3-0 White lead at 14:15 of the third period.
Everberg fed Hishon in front for the Burgundy's lone goal.
Varlamov started in goal for the Burgundy team and allowed two goals on 11 shots before he was replaced by Spencer Martin at 10:25 of the second period. Martin stopped 23 of 24 shots, including a glove save against MacKinnon skating in alone. Reto Berra turned aside all 14 shots he faced in the same time frame for the White team before giving way to Calvin Pickard, who stopped 16 of 17 shots.
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These were the lineups Sunday:
BURGUNDY Martinsen-Duchene-Iginla Mitchell-Bleackley-Comeau Rendulic-Hishon-Everberg Pepin-Hamilton-Bordeleau
Beauchemin-Johnson Bigras-Stuart Geersten-Noreau Boikov-Clark
Varlamov Martin
WHITE Landeskog-Soderberg-Rantanen Tanguay-Grigorenko-MacKinnon Nantel-Street-Skille Beaudin-Smith-Olhaver
Gormley-Barrie Zadorov-Redmond Siemens-Meloche Maheux-Hamonic
Berra Pickard