The Avalanche-Golden Knights game was sunspended Saturday afternoon.

The teams were playing on an ice rink that turned into a 7-Eleven Slurpee in the first period. The surface had the look, and maybe the flavor, of a Pina Colorado.

This latest pucked-up hockey fiasco for an Avs “home game’’ became the first NHL contest in history postponed on account of a perfect day.

Remainder of Avalanche, Golden Knights outdoor game at Lake Tahoe delayed to late Saturday night

The Curse of Avalanche Outdoor Games continues. Perhaps the Avs should reconsider participating in February events that are not held in an arena. Thinking outside the box doesn’t seem to be working.

Where’s the next one — Jamaica? On the deck of an aircraft carrier off the coast of Maui? Near Eisenhower Tunnel off to the side of I-70?

The Avs were 0-2 in outdoor games — the 2016 original at Coors Field when they were embarrassed against the Dread Wings and the second at the Air Force Academy in 2020 when everything that could go bad went worse.

Who’s the ridiculous man in charge — Bartman or Bettman?

The Avalanche vs. the Golden Knights fresh-air affair appeared to be the immaculate intention. The expansion team of Las Vegas and the two-time Stanley Cup team of Colorado have become authentic rivals. They had played 11 times since Vegas joined the league in 2017, and the Avs held a 6-5 overall lead. The golden guys and the maroon 6 are amid a quirky series this season. They were scheduled for four consecutive games — the previous two in Las Vegas on Sunday and Tuesday, the Saturday game and the finale on Monday night in Denver at The Jar. In the first, the Knights, with one goal, shut out the Avs, but the visitors responded with a 3-2 victory.

The Avs were leading 1-0 after the first period Saturday before the sunout.

This A-GK game was the first planned for Lake Tahoe at the California-Nevada border, and it was the first of more than 30 of the out-of-doors regular-season matches that wouldn’t be played on a football field or in a baseball park.

The site sort of confused players, fans and sports commentators.

At a media conference the Avalanche’s Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, a former member of the Knights, said he was excitedly anticipating playing on a real frozen lake. Teammate Andre Burakovsky informed Bellemare the game would be in a rink next to Lake Tahoe, not in the middle of the water. Bellemare said his dreams were ruined because he never had an opportunity to play on a lake back home.

He’s French, which explains his confusion.

Avs players were in awe Friday during their workout at the spectacular setting — with the snow-shrouded Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance, the country’s second-largest inland lake within 50 feet of the rink and a ring of 10 mammoth trees, including two just behind and between the team benches. The rink was set upon the 18th hole of a golf course where the annual high-profile celebrity-athlete golf tournament is conducted.

What possibly could go wrong, the NHL and the teams believed when the players began to skate Saturday at noon (Pacific Coast time)? Although temperatures were in the 30s, and snow had fallen in the morning, the sky was Easter-egg blue with only a smattering of clouds, but none over the lake. There was no shield from the sun, and players wore eye-black to prevent glare. Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer would be staring directly into the stark sunshine in the first period, and shadows waltzed with the players.

Center ice, though, started to melt into a slush pit, and players and officials slid and fell all over the rink. Avs defenseman Samuel Girard managed to blister a puck through the legs of Knights’ famed goalie Marc-Andre Fleury three minutes into the action, and neither team, including the Avs aggressors, scored again in the first 20 minutes of The Fall Classic.

Intermission was supposed to last 18 minutes, but two hours later, after a meeting of minds (of commissioner Gary Bettman, Avalanche exec VP Joe Sakic, players, coaches and referees) a decision finally was made to postpone the remaining two periods until 10 p.m. Denver time.

I can’t tell you the final score. I will be asleep when the Avalanche’s Ice Capades end.