Leafs extend Avs’ woes

Just when it appeared the Colorado Avalanche were moving in the direction, they run into a skilled hockey team.

On Tuesday night, the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs scored three power-play goals in less than two minutes in the middle frame to break open what had been an entertaining game, en route to a 5-2 win over the Avs in Denver.

“It was our power play,” Toronto head coach Mike Babcock said. “For a while tonight it was going badly. We weren’t doing good things. When you don’t do good things, good things don’t happen. But when you start to do good things, you get competitive.

“It was great to see our guys be rewarded. Gives them a bit of swagger back and their play was the difference in the game.”

Kasperi Kapanen and Nazem Kadri struck for two goals each in the win.

“Like I said earlier, all being on the same page,” Kadri said. “That makes a big difference. Trying to make little adjustments, talking amongst the five of us and trying to draw up little plays that possibly could work. That was the difference. It was nice to get a couple tonight, for sure.”

Auston Matthews added a goal and three points in the Leafs’ win.

“I haven’t been put on too much power play,” Kapanen said. “I’m grateful for the chance to get out there and then try to score goals. Lucky enough, I did today.”

Frederik Andersen made 34 saves to get the win.

Alexander Kerfoot and Ryan Graves scored for the Avs.

“Breakdowns in coverage, they scored. Guys didn’t do their jobs on the specific [penalty] kills and it’s in the back of your net. We were having a good game 5-on-5 and then bang, bang, bang, they score three,” the Avs’ Erik Johnson said after the game.

Colorado has fallen all the way to 22-223-11.

“We’d like to be good home and away. It’s tough, especially coming into a building like this where altitude obviously affects you,” Matthews said. “I thought the first 10 minutes we kind of weathered the storm. It was a big goal by [Kapanen] there and we just went from there. Power play came out big for us and the rest is history.”

[WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Avalanche highlights]

Colorado continues to have question marks in net.

Semyon Varlamov got the start in Denver but yielded four goals and made just 13 saves before getting the hook.

Philipp Grubauer made 10 saves after entering the game in the middle frame.

“I thought Grubauer did a really nice job coming in cold,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought [Varlamov] was great. He was giving us a chance to win. What’s he going to do on the power play? They’re seam passes to quick spots on and off the guys’ tapes. It’s great execution by them and I don’t think he has a chance.

“I pulled him simply because it’s been a while since [Grubauer] got in the net and tried to spark our team. That was not a goalie pull, but he was great and [Varlamov] was pretty darned good too.”