Nylander's five points power Maple Leafs past Avalanche 6-3

Nylander's five points tied a career high, and Auston Matthews added two goals and two assists for Toronto, which has alternated wins and losses to start the season, the Associated Press reported.

Nathan MacKinnon scored twice for Colorado, and Brock Nelson also scored. Mackenzie Blackwood made 16 saves in his first setback of the season, and the Avalanche went 0 for 5 on the power play, including eight seconds of a 5-on-3 early in the second period, according to the AP.

Nick Blankenburg gave Toronto a 1-0 lead 3:03 into the game. MacKinnon tied it midway through the first with a rush through the Toronto defense and gave Colorado a 2-1 lead with his second of the night at 15:14. Nylander tied the game 19 seconds after Jaden Schwartz took a high-sticking minor early in the second, the first power-play goal Colorado had allowed this season, and Nelson's rebound goal put the Avalanche back ahead 3-2.

Toronto seized the game late in the second period, when Nylander and Easton Cowan scored 46 seconds apart, at 16:47 and 17:33, to take a 4-3 lead. Matthews added a power-play goal midway through the third period and sealed the win with an empty-netter in the final minute. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots for Toronto.

Nick Paul added two assists for the Maple Leafs, and Cowan's go-ahead goal came on a one-timer off a pass from Morgan Rielly, according to the AP. Reuters reported Nylander's three assists were a career high and his five points matched his career high.

Avalanche forward Logan O'Connor was away from the team following the sudden passing of his father, former NHL defenseman Myles O'Connor, the AP reported.

The Avalanche had a chance to extend the lead with consecutive power plays at the start of the second but could not score, Reuters reported, and Toronto took advantage of its first power-play chance when Nylander converted at 6:53 of the period off a pass from Gavin McKenna.

MacKinnon gave Colorado the lead with his second of the night at 15:14, capping a first period in which the Avalanche twice answered Toronto goals, according to the AP. It was not enough: two goals in 46 seconds late in the second turned a 3-2 Colorado lead into a 4-3 deficit.

The Maple Leafs wrap up their three-game road trip at Utah on Tuesday night. The Avalanche visit Dallas the same night, looking to rebound from a loss in which a two-goal second-period lead slipped away in under a minute and a power play that went scoreless in five chances.