DENVER -- Frederik Gauthier got an early Christmas present when he made his NHL debut Monday.

The holidays got even better for him and the Toronto Maple Leafs against the reeling Colorado Avalanche.

Gauthier scored his first career goal, Frederik Andersen made 38 saves for his first shutout of the season, and the Maple Leafs beat Avalanche 6-0 on Thursday night.

Nazem Kadri had two goals, and James Van Riemsdyk added a goal and an assist. Rookie Auston Matthews stayed hot with a goal, giving him 25 points this season as returns to his home state of Arizona when Toronto (13-12-7) plays the Coyotes on Friday.

Gauthier has a lot of catching up to do if he wants to match Matthews' season, but he was happy just to get his first one. It came with Toronto well ahead, but it was a thrill for the Quebec native.

"To get the first, it's a great feeling," he said. "It's nice."

Connor Brown also scored, and Jason Gardiner, Mitchell Marner and Nikita Zaitsev had two assists each.

The Avalanche (11-20-1) are winless in their past eight home games (0-7-1) and have lost five in a row overall. Their last win was Dec. 11 in Toronto, and they have been outscored 29-6 in their past six games.

Colorado's last home victory came Nov. 14 against the Los Angeles Kings.

"We need to score more than zero goals if we're going to get out of last place," Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said. "Our power play's really bad, our five-on-five is bad. Defensively, I think we're better than what we're playing, believe it or not. We just can't seem to bury anything, we have no chemistry. Hopefully we can get that rolling after the break or (Friday) night against Chicago."

The Avalanche failed to score on six power-play chances and had two five-on-three opportunities for a combined 2:10 but couldn't bury one.

"It's frustrating and it's embarrassing," captain Gabriel Landeskog said.

Semyon Varlamov started his second straight game after missing three with a groin strain, but he didn't last the night. He was pulled in favor of Calvin Pickard after the Maple Leafs made it 5-0. Varlamov finished with 13 saves in less than half a game.

Pickard made 12 saves in 31:18 and allowed a power-play goal to Kadri in the third period. It was Kadri's third goal in the past two games and 13th on the season.

The six-goal outburst tied Toronto's high for the season and ended a string of four straight one-goal games. The Maple Leafs were 1-1-2 in those contests.

"We know we can score," Kadri said. "It's just about being persistent and staying on top of it, not getting discouraged when we don't score goals. We've had opportunities every single game, it's just the puck doesn't go in the back of the net."

Matthews got his fourth goal in the past five games when he gave Toronto a 1-0 lead 7:13 into the first period. He used Colorado defenseman Francois Beauchemin as a screen to beat Varlamov for his 16th goal of the season.

Brown made it 2-0 midway through the first with a power-play goal, and Kadri tipped a shot from the point by Roman Polak at 18:20 of the first to boost the lead to 3-0.

Van Riemsdyk scored seven seconds after Toronto killed off a minor penalty in the second, and Gauthier made it 5-0 at 8:42 of the second.

Gauthier's goal chased Varlamov.

"It's embarrassing that you have to pull the goalie on home ice," Landeskog said.

Colorado had 10 shots on goal in the third period, but Andersen stopped them all for his seventh career shutout.

"It's always fun to have (shutouts), but wins are the most important, obviously," he said. "We're happy to get the two points today."

NOTES: The Maple Leafs recalled F Byron Froese and G Antoine Bibeau from the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. In addition, the Maple Leafs loaned G Jhonas Enroth to the Marlies. Bibeau served as Frederik Andersen's backup for Thursday's game. ... The Avalanche are 1-for-23 on the power play in the past five games. The team's power play and penalty kill both ranked 22nd in the NHL before Thursday. ... Toronto C Tyler Bozak missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. He is considered day-to-day. ... The Avalanche rank last in goals per game (2.1) and goals allowed (3.16).