DENVER -- Tyler Randell's fairytale debut helped the Boston Bruins end a nightmarish start to the season.

Randell scored a goal in his first NHL game, right winger Jimmy Hayes added a goal and three assists, and the Bruins bounced back from a tough homestand to rout the Colorado Avalanche 6-2 Wednesday night.

Center Ryan Spooner had a goal and an assist, and center Chris Kelly and defenseman Kevan Miller also scored for Boston, which avoided its first 0-4-0 start in 51 years.

Randell was a big part of the victory. The 24-year-old right winger was on the ice for two goals as Boston jumped on the sluggish Avalanche from the start.

"It's definitely what you dream from day one, when you're 3 years old playing mini sticks, firing the ball around and pretending you're in the NHL," Randell said. "The chance finally came. I never expected this to happen in the first game, but pretty exciting."

The Bruins, who were outscored 16-7 in their first three games, turned to backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson to stop the slide. He was staked to a big lead before Colorado got late goals from right winger Gabriel Landeskog and center John Mitchell.

Gustavsson finished with 20 saves.

"If you start 70 games or 10 games, all of the points are important," Gustavsson said. "When I get the chance, I'm just going to try to make the most of it and play my game."

Colorado pulled the goalie for an extra attacker with 3:01 left, and Boston center David Krejci scored into the empty net with 1:29 remaining.

"We were awful tonight," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "I'm not happy at all. I understand if we don't have our 'A' game. That doesn't mean to be 5-0 in the hole before we start playing. We need to keep things simple and wait for a good opportunity to score a goal."

Miller gave Boston the early lead when his shot from the right point through traffic beat goalie Semyon Varlamov inside the far post at 5:49 of the first. Hayes made it 2-0 just 2:22 later when he knocked in the rebound of defenseman Zdeno Chara's shot.

"It was a good one for me to get out of the way," said Hayes, who finished with a career-high four points. "It felt like it was forever to score a goal. The first one always seems like the toughest one."

The Bruins piled on in the second period to take command.

Randell tipped in defenseman Adam McQuaid's shot from the point at 3:46, and Boston put it away midway through the period on Kelly's goal. Hayes stole defenseman Tyson Barrie's clearing pass at the blue line and fed Spooner in the slot. Spooner sent a pass to Kelly, who deked Varlamov and put a backhander in to make it 4-0.

Spooner made it 5-0 when he scored after another giveaway at 15:32. Varlamov, who stopped just 14 of 19 shots, was then replaced by backup Reto Berra, who stopped all five shots he faced from that point on.

"We seem to have good starts in every game so far this year, and that couldn't change," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "But what had to change was we had to extend the 20-minute game to a 60-minute game."

The Avalanche got one back on a power play late in the second. Landeskog had it in front but lost the handle when he tried to spin around. Chara tried to poke it away but instead knocked it into his own net to make it 5-1.

Mitchell added his third of the season midway through the third to make it 5-2.

The Avalanche, who blew a three-goal lead in the third period to Minnesota last Thursday, finished their season-opening homestand 1-2-0.

"We wanted to go 3-0 starting with three home games," Landeskog said. "We end up losing the first one, and we felt we could go 2-1, and tonight there's definitely disappointment. Any road team that comes into altitude, you have to jump right on them, especially fragile teams that lost three in a row."

NOTES: Avalanche D Brad Stuart made his season debut, and D Nate Guenin was a healthy scratch for the first time. Guenin joined D Brandon Gormley, who has yet to play this year, on the sideline. C Mikhail Grigorenko also was scratched. ... Boston LW Brad Marchand is out with a concussion but is on the two-game road trip with the team. C Max Talbot was a late scratch. ... The Avalanche scored 10 goals in their first two games, a franchise best since the move to Denver in 1995. ... The Bruins recalled D Tommy Cross from Providence of the American Hockey League, and he played 14:25.