Brock Nelson, Mackenzie Blackwood lead Avalanche past Maple Leafs

Corey Masisak, The Denver Post on Jan 25, 2026

Published in Hockey

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TORONTO — After a long and inconsistent homestand, the dominant version of the Colorado Avalanche returned Sunday afternoon.

Brock Nelson scored a hat trick, including goals on back-to-back shifts, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 32 saves as the Avs handled the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1, in an impressive performance at Scotiabank Arena.

Colorado finished its longest homestand of the season at 3-2-2, and came into this contest with losses in six of nine (3-4-2), but this looked a little more like the team that stormed to the top of the NHL with a historic first half of the season.

Nelson put the Avs in control with a pair of goals just 72 seconds apart. Cale Makar re-directed a Leafs outlet pass near the Colorado blue line to Nelson, who quickly went the other way with Nathan MacKinnon on a 2-on-1.

Instead of passing to MacKinnon, Nelson buried a hard wrist shot from the right circle behind Leafs goalie Joseph Woll at 6:19 of the first. Nelson took a shift both before and after a television timeout with MacKinnon and Martin Necas, and it paid off with his 25th goal of the season.

No. 26 came on his next shift, back with his typical linemates. Nelson tipped a point shot from Makar wide, and then Valeri Nichushkin made a nifty pass to himself to control the corresponding loose puck. He got to Artturi Lehkonen behind the net, and then Nelson one-timed a pass from Lehkonen from a tight angle off Woll's body and in.

Nelson added an empty-net tally with 2:19 remaining for the fifth hat trick of his career and first with the Avalanche.

That is 27 goals in 50 games for Nelson this season. He had 26 in 80 games last year between his time with the New York Islanders and the Avs after a March 7 trade. The soon-to-be United States Olympian also has 21 goals in the past 26 games — only Edmonton's Connor McDavid has more in that span.

This was a big bounce back game for Blackwood. He missed time with a lower-body injury and his first two games back — losses to Nashville, Tenn., and Philadelphia were statistically his worst two performances of the season. He allowed 11 goals on 47 shots combined across those two contests, but was rock solid Sunday in Toronto, particularly in the first half of the second period when Toronto made its biggest push.

Blackwood had a pair of saves on Auston Matthews from prime scoring positions during that stretch. Colorado controlled the play for much of the afternoon outside of that. He did have to make one sprawling save on a rebound shot from Matias Maccelli with just more than seven minutes left in the third.

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