Teddy Blueger scored twice, Marcus Pettersson had a goal and two assists, Max Sasson had a goal and an assist and Kevin Lankinen made 24 saves.
“I think every win, no matter what the year is, but especially right now, it's probably, yeah, we're going enjoy it for a bit,” said Sasson. “When you beat the No. 1 team in the League, it feels pretty good.”
Sam Malinski scored twice and had an assist, and Brent Burns had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (49-15-10), who are first in the Western Conference and Central Division, eight points ahead of the Dallas Stars.
“Effort for 20 minutes and doing the right things for 20 minutes isn't good enough,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I like the way we played in the third, but the reality of it is, if you want to win in this league, you have to play that way for 60 minutes. But we weren't even close. Wasn't a great first and got worse in the second.
“There's no excuse. I think if we're making excuses for that performance, it's going to be a short (playoff) run.”
Mackenzie Blackwood allowed six goals on 19 shots before being replaced by Scott Wedgewood at 15:21 of the second period. Wedgewood made five saves in relief.
“It was just one of those weird bouncing games that, for whatever reason, they seemed to get the odd man on all the opportunities,” Wedgewood said. “We get the chance to come back, we got it, and then we get an unfortunate bounce. Guys doing the right thing and (it) ends up in the back of the net. Nothing you can do about it.”
The Canucks blew a 6-2 lead before recovering with two goals late in the third period.
Just 22 seconds after Colorado changed goalies, Malinski cut it to 6-3 with a wrist shot from the blue line that caromed off the left leg of Zeev Buium and behind Lankinen at 5:43 of the second period. Vancouver challenged for goaltender interference on Parker Kelly, but video review upheld the call.
Kelly made it 6-4 just 14 seconds into the third period with a wrist shot that went short side past the glove.
“We knew we wanted to get one early. You could just see the emotion of the goal,” said Malinski. “That’s the player he is and he got us going and played his part.”
Burns scored to make it 6-5 at 13:21 with a one-timer from the blue line that went through traffic in front.
Malinski scored his second to tie it 6-6 at 13:58 of the period. He trapped a clearing attempt inside the blue line and sent a slap shot far side past the blocker.
“We just have to be better. We all knew that,” Malinski said. “We weren’t playing the right way and weren’t playing the detailed hockey we need to be playing right now.”
Marcus Pettersson regained the 7-6 lead just 23 seconds later at 14:21 with a one-timer from the top of the left circle that went short side past the right skate blade of Wedgewood.
Boeser completed his seventh NHL hat trick with an empty-net goal from his left half-wall at 18:31 for the 8-6 final.
“I don't even know if there were any (hats), but honestly, I'm just more happy that we got the win,” Boeser said. “Like I said, it's been a rough stretch here, and I thought we've been competing harder the last few games, and I'm just happy we could get that one.”
Sasson scored to make it 1-0 Vancouver at 29 seconds into the first period, going five-hole with a snap shot from the bottom of the left circle.
