DENVER — Darren Helm, a Red Wings lifer until 24 games ago, scored the Colorado Avalanche’s third goal of the night in his first time facing his former team. That was compelling enough for a Detroit goalie switch just 10:49 into the game.

The Avalanche scored three more on Alex Nedeljkovic, put another into the empty net and went on to win 7-3 on Friday night at Ball Arena.

Andre Burakovsky scored twice and Darcy Kuemper made 37 saves. It wasn’t a calm night for Kuemper in terms of workload or difficulty. He had to make several big stops to keep the Red Wings from getting ideas.

“It’s kind of a funny night because if you look at it, Kuemps probably lets in two bad goals. … and then he comes up with all these huge saves in traffic, rebound opportunities and put-backs that we didn’t do a very good job of right in front of the crease tonight,” coach Jared Bednar said.

“All in all, I’m pretty happy with the way he played. He’s a little bit like our team – he’s got to clean up, make sure they’re not getting any easy ones, and then make some of the saves that he made tonight.”

Spread over 14 seasons, Helm spent the first 744 regular-season games and 82 playoff contests of his career with the Red Wings before joining Colorado as a free agent in July. He had played the 17th-most regular-season games in Detroit’s franchise history at the time of his departure.

“Doing it against your old team in the first game against them is obviously huge,” Burakovsky said. “Really happy for him.”

Helm won the Stanley Cup in his rookie season in 2008, then saw the perennial contender sink down the standings.

The second-oldest player on the Avalanche, Helm is one of four players to appear in every game so far. The first-period goal was his fourth of the season and he is, as in Detroit, a trusted penalty killer.

Helm said he tried not to think too much about the night ahead.

“I definitely think going back to Detroit will be a little bit harder,” Helm said. “Just play a game, go to work.”

Midway through the first period, Nicolas Aube-Kubel kept control of the puck while Helm ducked the coverage of Jordan Oesterle and fired a shot past Thomas Greiss stick side.

J.T. Compher, who returned to the Avalanche after missing 11 games, had tipped a Devon Toews shot to open the scoring five minutes into the game. Burakovsky soon doubled the lead.

Samuel Girard made it 6-2. Toews had three assists and defensive partner Cale Makar contributed the empty-netter and an assist.

“We’re moving the puck north a lot quicker than we were earlier in the year,” Toews said. “It’s allowing us, as (defense), to jump and get past the forwards that are defending us and kind of creating space. Some of it’s luck, too, that’s involved.”

Nathan MacKinnon sported facial scratches but played normal minutes after being yanked by concussion spotters in the Avalanche’s last game. He scored his second in two games from the top of the faceoff circle to make it 4-2.

Forward Nazem Kadri missed the game with a lower-body injury and captain Gabriel Landeskog left the game late with the same explanation.

“I don’t have a timeline on him yet,” Bednar said. “We’ll find out tomorrow at some point.”

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