Avalanche defeat Maple Leafs for 10th straight victory

TORONTO -- The Colorado Avalanche won their 10th straight game, the second-longest winning streak in franchise history, by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 at Air Canada Centre on Monday.

It is Colorado's longest streak since they won 12 straight from Jan. 10-Feb. 7, 1999.
WATCH: [All Avalanche vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Gabriel Bourque, Nail Yakupov, Blake Comeau and Gabriel Landeskog scored, and Jonathan Bernier made 29 saves for the Avalanche (27-16-3), who have not lost since Dec. 27.

Bernier has won nine games in a row for the Avalanche, which is the longest by a Colorado goaltender since Patrick Roy won 11 straight from Jan. 12-Feb. 7, 1999, and is tied for the second-longest streak in franchise history (Stephane Fiset, Oct. 18-Nov. 18, 1995).
"Feels really good," said Bernier, who spent three seasons with the Maple Leafs from 2013-16. "It's one of those games where you look on the calendar and you want to play that game and you definitely want to win. I've got to give credit to the guys, we battled hard, stuck with it, and Comeau scored a big goal."
The Avalanche have held opponents to two or fewer goals eight times during the streak.
"We made a couple mistakes but got the save when we needed it tonight," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "For the most part, our scoring chances against are slowly coming down over the last couple months. That's where we want to get to, we want to be able to stay dangerous offensively and still do a good job defensively so we're not over relying on our goalies."
Patrick Marleau and Auston Matthews scored, and Frederik Andersen made 23 saves for the Maple Leafs (26-18-5), who are 1-2-3 in their past six games.

"I thought we played well, we had good scoring chances," Andersen said. "I would have liked to have played a little bit better, but those games happen. I thought we had a chance today if I maybe I could make another big save."
Comeau beat Matthews to the net and deflected a pass from Carl Soderberg between Andersen's pads at 12:17 of the third period to put the Avalanche up 3-2.
Landeskog scored into an empty net to make it 4-2 with 54 seconds left.
"I thought tonight was a telling tale of why we've had success the last little while here," Comeau said. "We've got contributions from all four lines, we had a huge penalty kill, and Bernier played outstanding."
The Avalanche tied it 2-2 when Yakupov took a pass in the right slot from Alex Kerfoot on a 2-on-1 and shot past Andersen's glove at 10:51.
Matthews appeared to score at 7:36 of the second period, but Bednar challenged for goalie interference, and the goal was overturned after video review.
"Matthews' stick was caught in between Bernier's blocker and body and pushed him back so the puck went in on the left side," said Bednar. "We didn't think he had a chance to get over because he was wrapped up in Matthews' stick."

Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said he disagreed with the goal being overturned but did not feel that was the reason they lost.
"I just thought we played good enough and generated enough chances, they didn't generate that many chances and, so, in the end, we should have won the game," said Babcock. "We didn't lose the game because of that goal in my opinion. We had lots of chances, we had lots of opportunity and they scored and we didn't."
Matthews scored 1:41 after his overturned goal
to put the Maple Leafs up 2-1 when he put in a rebound from William Nylander's shot.
Marleau tied it 1-1 when he took a pass from Leo Komarov and one-timed a shot past Bernier's glove 19 seconds into the second period.
Bourque put the Avalanche up 1-0 at 2:19 of the first period when he put a rebound from Tyson Jost's shot between Andersen's pads.

Goal of the game

Comeau's goal at 12:17 of the third period.

Save of the game

Bernier's save on James van Riemsdyk at 15:50 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Matthews' goal at 9:17 of the second period.

They said it

"To be honest, it was a huge goal for [Nail] Yakupov to go and do that so quickly after (the Maple Leafs took a 2-1 lead). I thought they gained some momentum in the second period, we turned some pucks over and fed into their transition a little bit, so that was a huge goal for us." -- Avalanche forward Blake Comeau
"I was pretty surprised, but I guess the way he explained it you kind of understand. It would have been nice to kind of get the benefit of the doubt just because I don't think I really interfered with him too much." -- Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews on his goal that was overturned

Need to know

Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon failed to score, ending his five-game goal streak and nine-game point streak. ... Bednar said defenseman Tyson Barrie (broken hand) and forward Sven Andrighetto (leg) will not play Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens. ... Marleau's goal was his 524th, tying him with Bryan Trottier for 35th in NHL history.

What's next

Avalanche: At the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, ALT, NHL.TV)
Maple Leafs: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, NBCSN, NHL.TV)