Avalanche overcome early 3-goal deficit to beat Maple Leafs 5-3

Jan 14, 2024, 04:09 am

TORONTO -- — Nathan MacKinnon broke a tie off a rush with 3:25 left and the Colorado Avalanche overcame an early three-goal deficit to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 on Saturday night.

After taking a pass from Mikko Rantanen, MacKinnon stopped and set himself to whistle in a shot past Martin Jones to help Colorado win for the ninth time in 11 games.

“They just seemed to have the puck more,” Jones said. “They generated some offense off their cycle.”

Andrew Cogliano, Mikko Rantanen, Jonathan Drouin and Ross Colton also scored for Colorado, with Colton getting an empty-netter with Jones off. Alexandar Georgiev stopped 26 shots.

Max Domi, Morgan Rielly and Timothy Liljegren scored in the first period for Toronto. The Maple Leafs have lost two in a row. Jones made 28 saves.

“A tough one,” Rielly said. “I thought there were good things at the start of the game. They took over the game. That’s the broad strokes of it. We got away from what we were doing.”

UP NEXT

Avalanche: At Montreal on Monday night.

Maple Leafs: At Edmonton on Tuesday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl