Auston Matthews scored twice and had two assists, Nick Blankenburg scored in his Toronto debut, and Nick Paul had 2 assists for the Maple Leafs (3-2-1), who got their first road win of the season. Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves for his first win of the season.

“We haven’t been good enough in front of him in his first couple starts, and he’s had to come up big and hasn’t gotten rewarded for it,” Matthews said of Bobrovsky. “I would have loved to see him get a win earlier, but, obviously, coming into this building against this opponent, he was huge for us tonight, and (it was) well deserved.

“’Bob’ came up with some huge saves, and power play came through. PK was solid, and sometimes you just got to weather the storm, bend, don’t break, and just grind out a win, and I thought we did that tonight.”

Nathan MacKinnon scored twice, and Brock Nelson also scored for the Avalanche (3-2-0), who have lost two of three. Mackenzie Blackwood made 17 saves.

“I wasn’t disappointed with the number of chances we gave up. I just did not like some of the chances,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Like just mental mistakes, that’s what it was. Wasn’t from lack of effort, lack of try. It was mental mistakes, and when they got their chances, they capitalized on them.

“I’m not going to tell you who they are, but we had a couple players that made multiple mental mistakes that led to really good scoring chances against. So for me, it’s like you got the team doing it right, and you got a couple guys that weren’t there for us tonight and it costs us. I think, again, it’s not the number; it’s just sort of the quality and the type of breakdown for me could have easily been solved with a little awareness, a little talk, and it wasn’t there.”

Blankenburg made it 1-0 Toronto at 3:03 of the first period after he activated from the point down to the left circle, caught a crossing pass from Nylander at the left wall, and fired a wrist shot short side over the glove. The defenseman made his Maple Leafs debut after signing a one-year contract on Sept. 27.

“Obviously, first time you get in a game in the year, you’re a little bit nervous, but I think it’s a good kind of nervous, like excited,” said Blankenburg. “So to get one here in the first shift definitely felt nice. So kind of took a weight off the shoulders and (I can) just kind of go out there and play.”