Avalanche score 5 straight, rally past Maple Leafs for 3rd win in row

TORONTO -- Nathan MacKinnon scored with 3:25 left in the third period for the Colorado Avalanche, who scored five unanswered goals in a 5-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

MacKinnon, who also had an assist and extended his point streak to seven games (four goals, nine assists), took a pass from Mikko Rantanen, stopped to let Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe slide by, and beat Martin Jones with a wrist shot from the left circle to put Colorado ahead 4-3 at 16:35.

“No, no not at all,” MacKinnon said when asked if the team always has confidence it can come back from a large deficit. “Down 3-0, it’s not fun, but we stayed resilient and they didn’t play their best, I didn’t think, in the last two periods, and we managed to come back. We have good players, but we can’t rely on digging ourselves out of a hole every night.”

Rantanen and Jonathan Drouin each had a goal and an assist, and Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves for the Avalanche (28-12-3), who have won three in a row.

Max Domi, Morgan Rielly and Timothy Liljegren scored for the Maple Leafs (21-11-8), who ended a five-game point streak (4-0-1) and host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday. Jones made 28 saves in his seventh straight start.

“That’s a tough one,” Rielly said. “I thought there were good things at the start of the game obviously but then they take over the game, we fight to take it back but it’s obviously challenging."

Drouin cut it to 3-1 at 5:27 of the second period on the power play when he one-timed a pass from Ross Colton in the slot.

“That first one was a gift where we just stop playing,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “You just can’t do these things.”

Rantanen made it 3-2 at 13:13, putting in a rebound from Samuel Girard’s point shot.

Andrew Cogliano tied it 3-3 at 7:35 of the third period when he beat Jones from the slot after Josh Manson’s point shot was blocked.

“Whenever those guys are able to chip in offensively, it’s huge,” Bednar said. “You can see the excitement, the timing of the goal, those guys put in a lot of heavy lifting, penalty kill, tough defensive-zone minutes on a nightly basis. To see Cogliano get rewarded at a key time in the game, in Toronto, I think it’s fantastic.”

Colton scored an empty-net goal with seven seconds left for the 5-3 final.

“Tough, [it stinks] when you give up a late goal obviously,” Jones said. “They just seemed to have the puck a little bit more (in the second and third period). They were able to cycle around in our zone and create some offense that way. I thought we did a pretty [good] job off the rush controlling their speed, they’re a pretty good team in transition off the rush. I thought we did a pretty good job there but probably just too much time in the defensive zone.”

The Maple Leafs took a 1-0 lead at 6:23 of the first period when Domi’s shot from above the left circle deflected in off Manson’s chest in the slot.

Rielly made it 2-0 at 10:47. After flipping the puck ahead in the neutral zone, he won the puck from Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews at the blue line and beat Giorgiev with a backhand on a breakaway.

“I was just trying to get it in and then I just tried to stick with it,” Rielly said. “I ended up getting my stick on it. There was some good luck on my side there, so I’ll take it.”

Liljegren pushed it to 3-0 at 15:04 when he put in a loose puck from below the right circle during a scramble in front of the net.

“The mindset was just to win the second, honestly, simple as that,” MacKinnon said. “There’s no magic recipe when you are down 3-0. We just saw the game through, did our best and managed to come back.”

NOTES: Rieilly, Mitchell Marner, William Nylander of the Maple Leafs, and Georgiev and Cale Makar were added to the NHL All-Star Game. ... MacKinnon scored the 60th game-winning goal of his NHL career, passing Milan Hejduk for sole possession of second in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. … The Avalanche were without forward Valeri Nichushkin, who missed the game with an illness. ... Colorado defenseman Jack Johnson left the game at 15:18 of the second period with a lower-body injury. Bednar said he “pulled something” but he is hopeful Johnson will be available for back-to-back games on Monday against the Montreal Canadiens and Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators.