Maple Leafs vs. Avalanche: Nylander, Matthews Power 6-3 Win in Denver

Maple Leafs vs. Avalanche: the result

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday, Oct. 10, and the Maple Leafs vs. Avalanche box score reads like a throwback to the best nights of the last decade. William Nylander had two goals and three assists to tie his career high of five points. Auston Matthews scored twice and added two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 of 33 shots for his first win in a Maple Leafs sweater, and Toronto picked up its first road win of the season.

It was not a clean night. Chris Tanev left in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return, Colorado led 2-1 after one and 3-2 midway through the second, and Nathan MacKinnon scored twice. But Toronto won the special-teams battle outright — 2-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill, per the Maple Leafs' own game notes — and scored three times in a span of 10:40 of the second period to take control.

The win moved Toronto to 3-2-1 with seven points. Colorado fell to 3-2-0.

How the game turned

Nick Blankenburg opened the scoring 3:03 into the game, in his first game as a Maple Leaf. The club called it the fourth-fastest goal from the start of a player's team debut in franchise history. MacKinnon answered at 10:46 and again at 15:14 to send Colorado into the intermission ahead.

The second period is where the night was won. Here is the scoring summary, as reported by NHL.com:

PeriodTimeTeamScorerNote1st3:03TORNick BlankenburgLeafs debut1st10:46COLNathan MacKinnonTies 1-11st15:14COLNathan MacKinnonColorado leads 2-12nd6:53TORWilliam NylanderPower play, from McKenna2nd12:25COLBrock NelsonColorado leads 3-22nd16:47TORWilliam Nylander700th career point2nd17:33TOREaston CowanGo-ahead goal, from Rielly3rdMid-periodTORAuston MatthewsPower play, from Nylander3rd19:21TORAuston MatthewsEmpty net

Nylander's tying goal at 16:47 and Cowan's go-ahead goal at 17:33 came 46 seconds apart, and that sequence broke the game. Cowan's goal was his third of the season, a strong early return from a 21-year-old still on his entry-level deal. Matthews' power-play goal in the third gave Toronto a two-goal cushion, and Bobrovsky handled the rest.

Nylander and Matthews looked like the old engine

The five-point night tied Nylander's career high, which he first set on Dec. 10, 2022. The 3-3 goal was his 700th career point and his 297th career goal, which moved him past George Armstrong and Frank Mahovlich (296 each) into seventh on the franchise's all-time goals list. He reached 700 points in 756 games, which NHL.com says is the seventh-fastest by a Swedish-born player. We dig into what the milestone says about his place in Leafs history in a separate piece on William Nylander's 700 points.

Matthews' 2-2—4 night was his second four-point game of 2026-27, and he is the only player in the league with more than one so far. It was also the 84th multigoal game of his career, which leaves him one behind Joe Mullen (85) for third among U.S.-born players in NHL history.

Matthews, in postgame comments reported by NHL.com, credited the two things that won the game: Bobrovsky "came up with some huge saves, and power play came through." That is a fair summary. Toronto did not out-shoot Colorado. It out-finished the Avalanche, and when a top unit finishes, a team can survive a night of being outshot.

Bobrovsky finally gets one

Bobrovsky's 30 saves gave him his first win since signing in Toronto. It was also the 457th regular-season win of his career, seventh in NHL history. Henrik Lundqvist sits sixth with 459, so Bobrovsky is two wins from tying him and three from passing him. Given the workload Jim Hiller has handed him on this road trip, that could come before Halloween.

The win matters beyond the milestone. Bobrovsky had been beaten in his first starts, and the Oct. 8 loss in Vegas — a shootout after Toronto blew a 3-0 lead despite his 40 saves — made it easy to say the goalie was doing his job and the team was not. Saturday was the reverse: the skaters did their part, and he made it hold. We argued after the first two starts that an 0-2 start changed nothing about the Bobrovsky signing. A first win does not change much either. What it does is take a talking point off the table.

McKenna's streak and the power play

With John Tavares away for the birth of his fourth child, Gavin McKenna moved onto the first power-play unit and set up Nylander's 2-2 goal. That assist gave McKenna a point in three straight games — one goal and three assists over the run — and, per NHL.com, made him the first Maple Leafs player aged 18 or younger to do that since Russ Courtnall in March 1984.

The power-play look with McKenna on it is worth watching when Tavares returns. Hiller has been careful with the first overall pick at even strength, and we argued this week that the third-line move is working and should stay. The power play is a different question. McKenna's best skill — patience with the puck on the half-wall, and the ability to find a seam before it opens — is exactly what a top unit needs, and his minutes there do not cost the team anything defensively.

Nick Paul, promoted to second-line centre in Tavares' absence, picked up two assists. That is the second straight game in which the depth Chayka assembled at centre has covered a hole. We broke down Paul's promotion before the game; the early verdict is that it worked.

The cost: Chris Tanev

The night's real concern is Tanev. He played 3:29 over five shifts before leaving at 11:08 of the first period with an upper-body injury. Hiller had no update after the game and said the team would likely know more in a day or two. Toronto dressed seven defencemen, so Blankenburg slid into Tanev's spot beside Morgan Rielly and the Leafs did not have to finish with five.

Tanev is 36 and appeared in only 11 games last season before core-muscle surgery. Whether this is a few days or a few weeks reshapes the defence conversation Chayka has been having since camp. We look at the options in our piece on what the Chris Tanev injury means for the Maple Leafs.

What the Maple Leafs vs. Avalanche win tells us

LeafsLurker's take: Saturday was the best evidence yet that this team's ceiling is still set by its stars, not its system. Nylander and Matthews combined for nine points. The power play scored twice. The goalie made the big saves. That is not a new formula, and it is not a criticism — it is the reason this roster was built the way it was.

The concern is the margin. Toronto was outshot 33-23 counting the empty-netter, and a three-goal second period on a handful of shots is not something a team can bank on every night. The early pattern — strong special teams, an overworked goalie, fewer shots than the opponent — will need to flip at five-on-five for this to hold over 82 games. Check where Toronto sits on the standings page as the trip wraps up.

What's next

The Maple Leafs had Sunday off and were scheduled to practise Monday in Park City, Utah, before closing the three-game western trip against the Utah Mammoth in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Oct. 13. The two things to watch are Tanev's status and whether Tavares rejoins the team in time to play; neither had been settled as of Saturday night. If both are out, Hiller will have to choose between keeping Paul at second-line centre and keeping McKenna on the top power-play unit with the same group that scored twice in Denver.