Rapid Recap: TOR 8 | COL 3

Rapid Recap: Maple Leafs 8, Avalanche 3
The Colorado Avalanche falls to the Toronto Maple Leafs 8-3 in its 1,000th regular-season road game since the move to Denver in 1995. This game marks the first visit to Toronto for the Avalanche since Dec. 4, 2019.
The Maple Leafs started the scoring for the contest with two goals within the first 10 minutes, three goals in the first period.

Samuel Girard notched the first for the Avalanche with only seconds before the first intermission.
Both the Avalanche and Maple Leafs tallied goals during the second period.
The game concluded with the Maple Leafs scoring three times, Auston Matthews completing a hat trick, and Nazem Kadri scoring the last goal.
THE GOALS
1st Period
4:31 TOR (0-1) - With an Avalanche turnover, John Tavares and William Nylander brought the puck into the zone with enough room for Nylander to take a shot and get the puck past Jonas Johansson.
7:57 TOR (0-2) - Nick Ritchie took a shot from the top of the zone through traffic for Wayne Simmonds to tip, but finally rebounded by Jason Spezza to get the puck into the net.
14:24 TOR (0-3) - Mitchell Marner passed the puck from the corner to find Auston Matthews in front of the net. Matthews showed off his stick handling to then pop the puck over Jonas Johansson.
19:58 COL (1-3) - Nathan MacKinnon made a back-hand pass to Samuel Girard, who took a shot from the point through traffic to get the puck home.
2nd Period
11:57 COL (2-3) - Jack Johnson took a hard shot from the point, the puck rebounded for both Nazem Kadri and Valeri Nichushkin to get a piece of resulting in Kadri pushing the puck past Jack Campbell.
12:44 TOR (2-4) - Immediately after the faceoff, William Nylander brought the puck to the top of the zone for Travis Dermott to take a shot and find the back of the net past Johansson's glove.
16:28 TOR (2-5) - John Tavares took a quick shot in front of the net which rebounded for a successful second try.
3rd Period
00:44 TOR (2-6) - Mitchell Marner with a backhanded pass to Auston Matthews for another quick move in front of the net to get the puck in.
8:41 TOR (2-7) - Auston Matthews pushed past a couple Avalanche players to bring the puck into zone for a quick shot to secure a hat trick.
10:08 TOR (2-8) - Pierre Engvall brought the puck down the ice for a one-timer to find the back of the net.
16:36 COL (3-8) - PPG Nathan MacKinnon made a cross ice pass to Gabriel Landeskog who made a shot through traffic and Nazem Kadri was able to tip the puck into the net.
Final: Maple Leafs 8, Avalanche 3
3 STARS
POWER PLAYS
Colorado: Jonas Johansson allowed 8 goals on 41 shots.
Toronto: Jack Campbell allowed 3 goals on 31 shots.
GOALTENDING BATTLE
Colorado: 1/4
Toronto: 0/2
STATS OF THE NIGHT
Both Cale Makar and Nazem Kadri received Three Stars honors this week. Makar earned the third star for the week of Nov. 22-28 with four goals, three assists and seven points. Kadri earned the third star for the month of November 2021. In 10 games Kadri tallied four goals, 17 assists and 21 points.
Nazem Kadri, with two goals in this contest, tallies 200 career goals.
NOTEBOOK
The Colorado Avalanche starts its second consecutive back-to-back set, Wednesday Dec. 1 at Toronto and Thursday Dec. 2 at Montreal. The Avalanche split the back-to-back set last weekend with a loss to the Dallas Starts and a victory over the Nashville Predators. There are nine more back-to-back sets on the 2021-2022 schedule. Cale Makar snapped his six game point streak, a career high. Bowen Byram leads NHL rookie defensemen in goals with four. Avalanche defensemen have scored 21 goals so far this season, the most in the NHL.
On this day in Avalanche history (Dec. 1, 2000), Patrick Roy made 40 saves in the home game against the Dallas Stars, earning the 4-2 victory.
ROSTER REPORT
Nathan MacKinnon makes his return to the lineup after sustaining a lower body. MacKinnon's last appearance was Nov. 6 against the Blue Jackets in Columbus. Martin Kaut has been actived from injury reserve and reassigned to the American Hockey League affiliate Colorado Eagles. Pavel Francouz also assigned to the Colorado Eagles, but continues to be on a conditioning assignment for a lower-body injury. Moments before puck drop, goalie Justus Annunen was recalled from the Colorado Eagles.
INJURY UPDATE
Darcy Kuemper is unavailable due to an upper body injury, but continues to be evaluated. Ryan Murray is out indefinitely after exiting the game on Nov. 27 against the Nashville Predators with a lower-body injury. J.T. Compher continues to be out for an upper-body injury. Stefan Matteau is still out after sustaining a lower-body injury on Oct. 16.
UP NEXT
The Colorado Avalanche travel to Montreal to face the Canadiens on Thursday Dec. 2 to wrap up the back-to-back set.
LINE COMBINATIONS
Based on the start of the game
Forwards
92 Landeskog - 29 MacKinnon - 96 Rantanen
13 Nichushkin - 91 Kadri - 95 Burakovsky
16 Aube-Kubel - 18 Newhook - 25 O'Connor
43 Helm - 17 Jost - 12 Megna
Defensemen
7 Toews - 8 Makar
4 Byram - 49 Girard
6 E. Johnson - 3 J. Johnson
Goaltenders
31 Johansson
1 Alexander