Woll makes 38 saves, Maple Leafs cool off Avalanche

TORONTO -- Joseph Woll made 38 saves and Steven Lorentz scored short-handed to break a tie at 2:53 of the third period for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 2-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

While killing a penalty, Simon Benoit’s clearing attempt hit an official in the neutral zone, where it was collected by Lorentz, who skated into the zone and shot over Mackenzie Blackwood’s glove from the left face-off dot to make it 2-1 Toronto.

“We were just trying to get a clear,” Lorentz said. “I’m not too sure what happened with the ref, I was trying to look to get a change but then I saw him kind of go down a little bit and saw the puck squirt loose so I thought I might as well reroute and try and get a shot on net and was fortunate enough to pick a corner and the rest is history. But I’ll take that bounce.”

Auston Matthews scored in his third straight game for the Maple Leafs (41-24-3), who have won two in a row after losing five of their prior six.

Toronto pulled into a tie with the Florida Panthers for first in the Atlantic Division with 85 points, but Florda has two more regulation wins.

“I think it was just a gritty win,” Matthews said. “Joe was great for us tonight. They’ve got some high-end speed and skill over there, and I thought we did a good job of when we needed to defend, we checked hard and Woll was there to back us up at the end too.”

Blackwood made 24 saves for the Avalanche (41-25-3), who had a nine-game point streak end (8-0-1). Colorado is third in the Central Division, four points behind the second-place Dallas Stars.

“I thought we played a pretty good hockey game,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We got a little sloppy in the third period in our defending, but we got some big saves for Blackwood. The two goals, the first goal, penalty kill, we’re in perfect position, we break up the pass and ends up jumping over our goalie’s shoulder and the last goal, it was cleared down the ice on the power play and ends up hitting the ref and giving them an odd-man rush. Those are just two unlucky bounces when you’re doing the right thing, and you just have to try to overcome them.”

Woll kept it 2-1 at 8:18 of the third period when he made a glove save on Brock Nelson, who shot from the slot.

“Massive, the biggest [impact] honestly,” Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe said. “Stood tallest. Bailed me out there in the third there when I turned the puck over and he has that save right down the pipe but that wasn’t the only big save, he had numerous big saves. He was great with the puck. Just super steady.”

Woll in fact complimented his defensemen McCabe and Chris Tanev for playing that shot the way they did.

“I think the defense did a good job of showing me that he was my guy, it was a 3-on-2, and they were pretty spread like that so I just tried to play him 1-on-1 as best I could and the defense have saved me plenty of times so [all good],” Woll said.

Matthews put Toronto up 1-0 just 28 seconds into the second period on the power play when his shot from the bottom of the right circle deflected off Devon Toews' stick at the top of the goal crease.

“I was trying to find Matthew Knies there on the back door, but fortunate bounce and I’ll take it,” Matthews said.

Valeri Nichushkin tied it 1-1 at 2:48 on the power play when he took a pass from Nathan MacKinnon and shot past Woll’s glove in the slot.

The Avalanche outshot the Maple Leafs 15-10 in the second period and had the final nine shots of the period.

“There’s 82 games, there’s going to be weird games like that every year so. I thought we played really well,” MacKinnon said. “Blackwood played great. Just unfortunate. It’s a good process. We’re not going to win every single game. They had looks too but we had a ton too. That could have been a 7-6 game.”

NOTES: MacKinnon leads the NHL with 104 points and 77 assists. … Maple Leafs forward William Nylander had a nine game point streak end (five goals, eight assists).