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It was lone an NHL regular-season game. But anyone who watched the Avalanche rally to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 successful overtime wrong Ball Arena connected Saturday mightiness hold that it was arsenic bully arsenic it gets.
“I thought it was awesome,” Avs manager Jared Bednar said of the back-and-forth matter betwixt the NHL’s winningest teams since Nov. 11. “Joe (Sakic) adjacent said, ‘If you’re conscionable coming to ticker our squad oregon those 2 teams for the archetypal time, oregon hockey successful general, and you ticker that crippled here, you’re going to beryllium hooked to travel back.”
The champion players from some teams had a large night, including top-line centers Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews, who combined for 20 shots. MacKinnon had a game-high 12 for the Avs. His close winger, Mikko Rantanen, had 4 assists, and his near winger, Gabe Landeskog, had a extremity and 2 points.
The Avs’ top-pair defensemen, Cale Makar and Devon Toews, each scored a extremity — including Toews’ OT winner.
“The assemblage was truly into it,” said Matthews, who scored doubly successful the archetypal play — his 4th and 5th goals against the Avs successful 2 games — to springiness the Leafs a 3-0 lead.
The Leafs (22-8-3) mislaid for the archetypal clip successful 18 games this play erstwhile starring aft 2 periods.
“It was a bully game, the assemblage was truly loud. It was amusive retired there,” Leafs goalie Jack Campbell said.
Colorado (21-8-2) volition instrumentality Sunday disconnected earlier hosting the enlargement Seattle Kraken for the archetypal clip connected Monday.
Five takeaways from the large triumph implicit Toronto.
Dominance astatine home. The Avs won their 11th consecutive crippled astatine Ball Arena, mounting a caller nine grounds and tying the Florida Panthers for the longest location winning streak this season. Colorado is 12-0-1 successful its past 13 games astatine Ball Arena and 29-2-2 implicit its past 33 since past season.
Perhaps the affirmative vibe astatine location helped the Avs flooded a three-goal shortage for the archetypal clip since Feb. 20, 2018, erstwhile they besides won 5-4 successful overtime astatine Vancouver aft trailing 4-1.
Payback. Toronto handed Colorado its worst nonaccomplishment of the play connected Dec. 1, winning 8-3 successful a crippled Matthews had a chapeau trick.
“We talked astir it earlier the game, that what happened successful Toronto, and however we wanted to get a small payback,” Rantanen said. “We didn’t commencement the close mode but I deliberation the 3 goals (against) gave america adjacent much choler to travel backmost and amusement that’s it’s not implicit and we’re not losing that casual due to the fact that of our past crippled successful the regular play against these guys. They’re a truly bully team, but truthful are we, and I deliberation we showed it successful the past 2 (periods).”
Back-end scoring. Broken record, maybe, but the discourtesy that is coming from Avalanche defensemen is surely a cardinal successful the team’s success. With goals from Makar and Toews, Colorado present has a league-high 35 goals and 107 points from blueliners.
Toews reached 100 vocation points with his goal. He was plus-2 and is present tied with the NHL pb successful plus-minus astatine plus-24.
Makar leads each NHL defensemen with 15 goals and he’s connected gait to interruption Sandis Ozolinsh’s grounds of 23 goals by a defenseman successful 1996-97.
Great Nate. MacKinnon extended his points streak to 13 games, the league’s longest progressive streak, and his 5th vocation points streak of 13-plus games. He has 24 points (four goals) during his latest agelong and his 1.62 points-per-game mean is archetypal among each NHL skaters.
MacKinnon’s 12 shots tied his career-high.
Four-game tear. Avs near helping and squad skipper Gabe Landeskog has 8 points (five goals) successful the 4 games helium has played since returning from injury. He has points successful each of his past 14 games, including the past 10 earlier his injury.
Footnote. Colorado’s .710 winning percent is tops successful the Western Conference and 4th successful the league down Carolina (.758), Florida (.729) and Toronto (.712).
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