In Denver, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Michael Bunting hit for a double on Saturday night, the Leafs downed the Avalanche, 6-2.
Matt Murray made 26 saves in the Toronto win.
“I’ll point out some of the things that are teachable moments for us, the way we closed out the first or second periods,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “But aside from that, I thought there was a lot of good things in the game. We got contributions from all four lines, all six defensemen, got saves from ‘Murr’ when we needed them there, when they had some of their flurries. So like I said, it’s a good way to close out what feels like a real long road trip here.”
The Maple Leafs improved to 23-8-6.
Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Mitchell Marner and Pierre Engvall
“Big goal by Mitch to get us going. Really great goal there, and then Engvall scores us a big goal, too,” Keefe said. “I thought there [were] contributions all the way throughout, and I thought we did what we needed to do.”
The Avs dropped to 19-13-3.
“I didn’t mind our start tonight,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Thought the first five, six, seven minutes was pretty good. We give up the rush opportunity. Skill player challenging 1-on-1 scores. Got better as the game went on, for sure. I liked our second period. We pull within one goal, and they cracked a couple of quick ones, so we get within striking distance. Just weren’t tight enough on the defensive side of things.”
J.T. Compher got one of those back for the Avs late in the first for a 2-1 advantage to the Leafs.
Bunting helped Toronto reclaim the momentum when he scored 32 seconds into the middle frame on the power, for a 3-1 lead.
The Avs; Devan Toews got that back to make it 3-2.
The Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews scored at 15:00 of the second for a 4-2 lead.
“I just tried to get the forecheck a little bit and try to force their guy to maybe make a play that he’s not comfortable with,” Matthews said. “‘Willy’ (Nylander) made a nice read to jump it. Gave me a lot of time in front of the net. Just tried to sneak it in.”
TJ Brodie made it 5-2 just 24 seconds later for a 5-2 lead headed to the third.
Bunting’s second marker of the night was an empty-net goal for the 6-2 final in the third.
Alexandar Georgiev got the start for the Avs and surrendered five goals, and made 19 saves before getting the hook in the middle frame.
Jonas Johansson made seven saves in his first game this season.
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