DENVER — William Nylander put on a five-point show at Ball Arena, scoring twice and setting up three more as the Toronto Maple Leafs skated away with a 6-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Auston Matthews supplied two goals and two assists, while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots for his first victory of the season.
Key takeaways
- Nylander matched his career high with five points in Toronto’s first road win of the season.
- Matthews finished with two goals and two assists, including a third-period power-play winner.
- Nick Blankenburg scored in his Maple Leafs debut after signing a one-year deal Sept. 27.
- Nathan MacKinnon scored twice for Colorado, which has dropped two of its past three games.
- Toronto defenseman Chris Tanev exited in the first period with an upper-body injury.
Toronto answers Colorado’s early push
The Maple Leafs improved to 3-2-1 after recovering from a Colorado surge in the opening period. Blankenburg opened the scoring at 3:03, jumping down from the point into the left circle and taking Nylander’s feed from the wall before snapping a short-side wrist shot over Mackenzie Blackwood’s glove.
Colorado answered with two from MacKinnon. He tied the game at 10:46, carrying speed into the Toronto zone, getting around Morgan Rielly and driving the net before slipping a close-range shot through Bobrovsky. At 15:14, MacKinnon gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead when his shot from above the slot caught glove and crossed the line with Martin Necas providing the screen.
Toronto lost Tanev at 11:08 of the first period. The defenseman did not return after sustaining an upper-body injury.
Nylander pulled the Leafs even on the power play at 6:53 of the second. Gavin McKenna found him near the left post, and Nylander moved from backhand to forehand around Blackwood before depositing the puck into an open net.
Brock Nelson restored Colorado’s lead at 12:25 of the middle frame, burying his own rebound short side over Bobrovsky’s right shoulder. But the Leafs struck twice in the final minutes of the period to take control.
Nick Paul kept Brett Kulak’s clearing try inside the blue line and got the puck to Matthews low in the right circle. Matthews located Nylander, who beat Blackwood’s blocker from the right-side hash marks at 16:47 to make it 3-3. Just 46 seconds later, Rielly sent a pass down to Easton Cowan, whose one-timer from beneath the right dot went inside the right post for a 4-3 Toronto lead.
Nylander and Matthews finish the job
Toronto’s top unit put the game out of reach in the third. Nylander worked below the left circle and slipped a backhand pass to Matthews at the right-circle hash marks. Matthews snapped the power-play shot short side past Blackwood’s glove at 12:02 for a 5-3 lead.
Matthews added an empty-netter at 19:21 to close his four-point night and complete the 6-3 final. Nick Paul contributed two assists in the victory.
Blackwood made 16 saves for the Avalanche, now 3-2-0. Colorado received all of its offense from MacKinnon’s pair and Nelson’s second-period goal, but could not contain Toronto after Nylander’s late equalizer turned the game’s momentum.
