Maple Leafs 4, Avalanche 3
Nikolai Kulemin tallied twice and All-Star Phil Kessel netted his team-leading 29th goal of the season as the Toronto Maple Leafs skated to a 4-3 road triumph over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Tyler Bozak also scored and Clarke MacArthur and captain Dion Phaneuf notched a pair of assists apiece for Toronto (34-31-10), which claimed its third straight win and fifth in seven outings.
With the win, the Maple Leafs moved to within three points of the idle Buffalo Sabres (36-28-9) for eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings.
Kulemin scored twice in just over a nine-minute span in the first period - with the latter coming with six seconds remaining in the session to give Toronto a 2-1 advantage. The 24-year-old Russian now has 28 goals on the season.
After the teams traded goals in the second period, Kessel gave the Maple Leafs a 4-2 advantage with a power-play tally just 3:02 into the third period.
Rookie James Reimer made the offensive outburst stand up by turning aside 25 shots to improve to 12-3-1 away from Toronto this season.
Ryan O'Reilly collected a goal and an assist, Daniel Winnik and Matt Duchene also scored and defenseman Erik Johnson notched three assists for Colorado (28-37-8).