[ad_1]
Breadcrumb Trail Links
Toronto Maple LeafsNHLHockey
Article content
He’s a natural, all right.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Auston Matthews’ dominance over NHL goaltenders continued on Thursday night.
Article content
In recording a hat trick in a span of seven minutes 49 seconds in the second period, Matthews lit up Philadelphia Flyers netminder Samuel Ersson, leading the Leafs to a 4-3 victory at Scotiabank Arena.
Matthews’ natural hat trick brought him to 45 goals in 51 games, putting him on pace for 71 goals in 2023-24.
William Nylander scored at 54 seconds of overtime, beating Ersson between the legs after taking a pass from Timothy Liljegren.
Advertisement 3
Article content
Not that Matthews’ prowess needs an exclamation point, but consider this: He has 344 goals, 76 fewer than the Leafs franchise record of 420 held by Mats Sundin. Matthews has played in 532 games, 449 less than the 981 Sundin skated in for Toronto.
The Flyers had a 1-0 lead before Matthews went off for his fifth hat trick of the season and 12th of his NHL career. Nine of Matthews’ three-goal games have come on home ice. He owes some of you serious hat money.
Your Midday Sun
Article content
Advertisement 4
Article content
A recap of the Matthews damage:
— His first goal came at 11:06, when Mitch Marner, who had the puck in the Leafs’ end, spotted Matthews at the Flyers blue-line and fired off a pass. Matthews took the stretch feed, made a few strides into the offensive zone and snapped a low shot past Ersson on the glove side.
— At 14:20 during a Leafs man advantage came a play that Marner and Matthews could, in all likelihood, make with their eyes closed. Parked at the faceoff dot to the left of Ersson, Matthews cocked and loaded, one-timing a Marner pass into the net on the short side.
— The trick was completed at 18:55 when Matthews got the puck from Liljegren. The latter made a smart play at the Philadelphia blue-line, batting down the puck with his hand and taking control of it before the Flyers could react. Matthews received the pass and used his patented curl and drag to hit the back of the net, again low on the glove side on Ersson.
Advertisement 5
Article content
Recommended from Editorial
Maple Leafs’ Bobby McMann enjoying cell-ebrity status after first NHL hat trick
Morgan Rielly’s appeal of five-game suspension to be heard on Friday
That was the good.
The ugly?
The Leafs had a 3-1 lead with under six minutes to play, but couldn’t hold it.
After Garnet Hathaway scored on a rebound at 14:14 to bring the visitors to within one goal, the Flyers got a power play at 14:39 when Tyler Bertuzzi was called for tripping deep in the offensive zone.
As if Bertuzzi’s consistent failure to score wasn’t enough, his penalty came not long after the Leafs killed off a Noah Gregor minor.
As Bertuzzi watched from the penalty box, Travis Konecny scored from the side of the net at 15:15 as Ilya Samsonov scrambled to get into position in the crease.
Advertisement 6
Article content
Bertuzzi hasn’t scored in 19 games and his six goals on the season represent a major disappointment for a player signed in free agency who was supposed to make a significant impact.
The Leafs welcomed back Marner and captain John Tavares, who were absent from the victory against St. Louis on Tuesday because of illness. And Nylander was in the lineup after he missed practice on Wednesday for the same reason.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
The Flyers didn’t give the Leafs much before Matthews’ run, but Toronto didn’t allow Philadelphia to run up the scoring chances on Samsonov either.
It was the Leafs’ third win in five games since the all-star break with a visit by the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday bringing an end to the three-game homestand.
Advertisement 7
Article content
Two nights after they were defensively excellent against the Blues with a depleted lineup, the Leafs demonstrated perseverance against a Flyers group that had won four in a row.
By the time the game ended, coach Sheldon Keefe probably wasn’t bothered too much by the short-handed goal scored by Flyers defenceman Travis Sanheim in the first period. It resulted after Max Domi lost the puck at the Flyers blue-line and Konecny went in a breakaway and hit the post. The Leafs couldn’t get their wits and left Sanheim open to beat Samsonov with a deke at 7:42.
Unlike a year ago, when their spot in the top three in the Atlantic Division was a foregone conclusion for months, the Leafs will be in a fight to move out of a wild card spot and into the upper reaches of the Atlantic.
Advertisement 8
Article content
“Every day, you’ve got to earn it,” Keefe said after the morning skate, referring to the battle that will last until the playoffs. “Every day you’re in a fight. Philadelphia is playing with a playoff intensity, right from the start of the season. That has carried them.
“I think that’s really where you want to be when the playoffs come around. For us, we’re going to have to play to the level similar to the type of urgency and commitment like we had the other night (in beating St. Louis), even more in order to get into the playoffs.
“It’s that tight and the league all around us has improved as well. So that’s a factor. We expect to be in the fight until the end.”
The Leafs won the round on Thursday.
tkoshan@postmedia.com
X: @koshtorontosun
Article content
Share this article in your social network
[ad_2]
Source link
