William Nylander had two goals and three assists, Auston Matthews had two goals and two assists, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 in Denver on Saturday night.
Nylander’s three assists were a career high and his five points matched his career high.
Easton Cowan and Nick Blankenburg also scored, Nick Paul had two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky turned away 30 shots for Toronto. The Maple Leafs have split the first two games of their three-game road trip.
Nathan MacKinnon had two goals, Brock Nelson also scored and Mackenzie Blackwood had 17 saves for Colorado. The Avalanche lost for the first time in three home games this season.
Blankenburg gave Toronto the early advantage when he scored from close range at 3:03 of the first period, but MacKinnon asserted himself the rest of the period.
He took a pass from Brett Kulak in the neutral zone, skated through the Maple Leafs defense and slid the puck through Bobrovsky’s pads at 10:46 to tie it. He gave Colorado a 2-1 lead later in the period when his screened shot from between the faceoff circles beat Bobrovsky high to the stick side at 15:14.
The Avalanche had a chance to extend the lead with consecutive power plays at the start of the second but couldn’t score. Toronto took advantage of its first power-play chance when Nylander got a pass from Gavin McKenna to the right of Blackwood, deked the goaltender and tucked the puck on the opposite side at 6:53.
Colorado took a 3-2 lead later in the second when Nelson cleaned up his own rebound and fluttered a shot over Bobrovsky at 12:25 but the Maple Leafs responded twice in less than a minute.
Nylander’s second of the night, at 16:47, tied it and Cowan made it 4-3 with a one-timer on a pass from Morgan Rielly at 17:33. Matthews scored a power-play goal at 12:02 of the third period and added an empty-netter in the final minute after Blackwood came off for an extra skater.
–Field Level Media
