Meeting for the first time this season, and after both teams made significant trade deadline acquisitions, the Colorado Avalanche hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs in Denver, Colorado. It was a fast-paced, physical game that came down to the wire, but the Avalanche scored five unanswered and won 7-4.
Game Recap
The scoring opened early as Valeri Nichushkin tipped Ryan Lindgren’s shot from the blue line just under one minute into the game. The Maple Leafs answered right back when Mitch Marner beat MacKenzie Blackwood on the far right as Brock Nelson was late to cover Marner and got his shot off. Nichushkin helped retake the lead as he received a great pass from Nelson and beat Anthony Stolarz under his glove, awarding Nelson’s first point as an Avalanche. Simon Benoit and Parker Kelly got physical in front of the Maple Leafs’ net, resulting in both receiving minor cross-checking penalties and headed to 4-on-4, but nothing came from it.
John Tavares tied the game after a faceoff in the Avalanche zone. The puck bounced off Jonathan Drouin’s skate, which Tavares recovered and then rifled past Blackwood, making the score 3-1. With four minutes left in the first, Bobby McMann fed Marner with a pass from behind the net, and Marner, on one knee, ripped it to retake the lead and ended the first period 3-2.
Max Domi was called for tripping against Logan O’Connor to start the second period, but the Avalanche came up short. Right after the penalty ended, William Nylander took a hooking penalty and sent the Avalanche back to the power play, but Stolarz stood firm to keep the lead at 3-2. Jack Drury took the third penalty of the period, and Tavares capitalized as Matthews found him with a pass in front of the net to make it 4-2 on the power play. Joel Kiviratna got one back on an odd-man rush with Ross Colton to bring the game back within one and end the second period 4-3.
Twelve minutes into the third, Drouin received a great pass from Charlie Coyle, who was behind the net, and buried it to tie the game 4-4. It followed with Necas being tripped by Marner, who headed to a potential breakaway. It was Nathan MacKinnon in the dying seconds of the power play who walked from the left side hash marks and shot it far post and in to take the 5-4 lead. The Maple Leafs pulled Stolarz to try and tie it up, but Nichushkin completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal. It wasn’t before MacKinnon scored his second goal of the game on the empty net, notching his 1,000th career point, and ended the game 7-4.
The Avalanche return to action on Monday, March 10, when they host the Chicago Blackhawks. Puck drop is set for 9 p.m. Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs hit the road and will take on the Utah Hockey Club on Monday, March 10. Puck drop is set for 10:00 p.m.
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