Matthews, Ovechkin put on a scoring show

Auston Matthews and Alex Ovechkin are operating in their own corners of the NHL record shop.

But when they generate goals on the same ice, covering three decades of scoring feats, it’s a rare treat. Ovechkin, who has been lighting up the Leafs and everyone else since 2005, scored two, while Matthews almost had another hat trick in Toronto’s 7-3 romp at Capital One Arena in Washington.

The deuce put leagueleader Matthews at 57 in his quest for 70 and to beat his club record, while the Great 8’s pair put him within 50 of passing Wayne Gretzky’s alltime goal record of 894.

The pre-game story was the fallout from Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe’s bad mood the night before in a flat 4-3 loss in Philadelphia. Keefe took a page from Flyers peer John Tortorella, sitting defenceman TJ Brodie. While this scratch didn’t have the wow factor of Torts benching captain Sean Couturier as it was a back-to-back, Brodie had never been a healthy scratch in his four years as a Leaf and for more than a decade prior in Calgary.

Keefe said before the game that Brodie’s up-and-down play since October had left little choice but to give him a rest. And after giving up a goal less than 20 seconds into the Philly game, the Leafs responded in kind against a home team coming off a long West Coast trip.

Using a forward line he didn’t preview in warmup (Toronto didn’t have a morning skate), Keefe had Matthews playing alongside Bobby Mcmann and Max Domi, who helped pin the puck with Domi centring to Matthews. Coming at the 16-second mark, it was the quickest of the 356 goals Matthews has scored from puck drop and moved him to third in franchise history in opening minute goals with six, behind Dave Keon (nine) and Darryl Sittler (eight).

With a cacophony of five posts still ringing in their ears from Philadelphia, Toronto added to its lead early in the second period, surviving a 2-on-1 and turning that into a William Nylander rush that he buried under Charlie Lindgren’s crossbar.

Washington got that back with Matthew Knies off for the night’s first penalty. Ovie got off a one-time blast through Joseph Woll, his second half surge this year firing up the debate that the 38-year-old Ovie can catch the Great One and beat Father Time.

Matthews added his second from long range and thought he had a third before Keefe’s former assistant Spencer Carbery got a heads-up from his video crew that trailer Tyler Bertuzzi had ventured offside.