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Auston Matthews was certainly in consideration to be one of the three nominees for the Hart Trophy, but with his performance down the stretch, the Toronto Maple Leafs center now looks to be the favorite to be the first Leaf to win the coveted award in 67 years, as he scored a pair of goals in a 4-3 overtime victory over the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center on Thursday.
Matthews scored a power-play marker in the second period to eclipse Rick Vaive’s 40-year-old club record for most goals in a season, and added his 56th of the season at 2:10 of overtime to become the highest-scoring American-born player in NHL History, surpassing Kevin Stevens and Jimmy Carson.
“It felt good. A lot of emotions running through your mind and body when you see the puck go in so I don’t really know what else to say but it’s definitely exciting and a really fun moment.” Matthews said after the game. “I just saw the puck go in and I was just so excited honestly, there’s not really that much else to it. (Mark Giordano) made a really nice pass and he put it right in my wheelhouse, so I just tried to attack the puck and I was able to sneak it in. There was a lot of stuff going through my mind I guess.”
The Leafs finished their stretch of five road games against Boston, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Florida, and Dallas earning nine of a possible 10 points, giving them a five-point cushion in second place in the Atlantic Division, but to lock that spot in place, they will have to do something they have had difficulty doing all season, which is beating teams in the bottom third of the NHL standings.
Toronto begins a stretch of five of their next six games at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens, followed by the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. After playing Washington on Thursday, the Leafs play in Ottawa next Saturday, before returning home to play the NY Islanders on April 17 and Philadelphia Flyers on April 19.
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2021 second-round pick Matthew Knies college season ended on Thursday, as the University of Minnesota lost to Minnesota State-Mankato in the Frozen Four. The 19-year-old winger scored the lone goal for the Golden Gophers in the first period and finished his freshman year with 33 points (15 goals, 18 assists) in 33 games, but it is still undetermined whether the big forward will return to college next season or turn pro.
Matthew Knies with some fancy footwork and slick hands to send fellow #LeafsForever prospect Mikey Koster in for an early scoring chance.
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