Avalanche tumble Leafs 3-1 in post-Canadiens rebound
TORONTO — Semyon Varlamov helped the Colorado Avalanche rebound from one of the worst losses in team history with 51 saves in a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday night.
Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Blake Comeau scored for the Avalanche (11-15-1), who were thumped 10-1 on Saturday evening by the Montreal Canadiens. It was only the second win in the last nine games for Colorado, which sits last in the NHL with 23 points.
Antoine Bibeau made 26 saves in his first NHL start, Jake Gardiner scoring the lone goal for Toronto (11-11-5).
The Leafs, who won 4-1 in Boston on Saturday, are now 0-5-1 on the second half of back-to-backs this season.
Colorado, which had never allowed 10 goals in a game since moving from Quebec, failed to come out with much pep early against Toronto.
The Leafs fired 16 of the first 19 shots, shift after shift spent hogging the puck in the Colorado zone. The Leafs couldn’t break through, however, largely due to the efforts of Varlamov. The Russian netminder, who gave up six goals in the loss to Montreal, was stellar in stopping all 21 first period shots, a season-high this year for the Leafs. Even-strength shot attempts favoured Toronto 24-7. It was the Avs who got on the board first with Rantanen’s fourth goal this season. Bibeau had trouble with Jarome Iginla’s initial onetime attempt on the Colorado power play, Matt Duchene grabbing the rebound in front before finding Rantanen with a backhand pass. The 20-year-old fired into a largely empty cage, Bibeau’s left skate locking with teammate Matt Hunwick’s right skate as he scrambled to get over.
The 22-year-old was making his first NHL start after a so-so start to the American Hockey League season. Superb in October, during which he was named the league’s goalie of the month, Bibeau dropped off and lost his final five starts before being recalled to replace Jhonas Enroth as Frederik Andersen’s backup.
Notable in the early going was Mitch Marner’s drop to the Leafs fourth line. Among the leading rookie scorers, the 19-year-old has cooled of late, totalling just three assists (no goals) in nine games before Sunday.
Marner was reunited with usual linemates James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak in a second frame that saw play even out.
Bibeau had to come up big after the Leafs failed to score on their third power play of the game.