Matthews scores 66th to pace Leafs
NEWARK, New Jersey — Auston Matthews knows that his teammates and most of the people in Toronto want him to score 70 goals this season and become only the ninth player in NHL history to accomplish the feat.
That’s why he’s trying not to think about it too much.
Matthews scored his leaguehigh 66th goal, extended his goal streak to six games and point streak to a dozen in leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-2 victory over New Jersey on Tuesday night, ending the disappointing Devils’ playoff hopes.
“I think the process is the same every night,” the 26-yearold Matthews said. “I find when you really overthink it and kind of almost want it too much it almost doesn’t go your way so I try and approach it the same and obviously want to make sure myself individually and as a team we’re doing the right things night in and night out.”
After a slow start, the Maple Leafs broke things open when Mark Giordano and Tyler Bertuzzi scored in a nine-second span late in the second period to give Toronto a 3-2 lead.
Nicholas Robertson also scored and Joseph Woll made 18 saves for Toronto, which now has 101 points with four games left in the regular season.
“For us as a team we needed to come together a little more with four games left and keep up the consistency and just get ready for the playoffs and have that playoff mindset and play these last four games like it’s playoff hockey,” said Bertuzzi, who added an empty-net goal late, his 21st of the season.
Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer scored for New Jersey, while Jake Allen made 32 saves.
“I think they’ve played hard,” Devils interim coach Travis Green said of the team that set a franchise record for points last season. “We’ve been in a lot of games and haven’t found a way to win games.”
Matthews’ 66th came on a shot from the circle that beat Allen at 7:33 of the final period.
His 66 goals are the most in a season among all active players. Alex Ovechkin of Washington has the previous high among active players entering the season when he scored 65 in the 2007-08 season.
“I think just obviously when you watch him play, the amount of pucks he puts on net, the shots, the calibre of them is pretty special,” said Mercer who picked up his 20th in the game. “Anyone in the league doing that is pretty special, and it hasn’t happened in so many years.”
Canadiens 9, Flyers 3
MONTREAL — Juraj Slafkovsky scored his first career hat trick, and the Montreal Canadiens dealt the stumbling Philadelphia Flyers their eighth straight defeat with a 9-3 blowout win.
The 20-year-old Slafkovsky put Montreal up 4-0 with his third goal on a breakaway midway through the second period.
Christian Dvorak — in his return from a 42-game absence — and Brendan Gallagher scored twice while Josh Anderson and Joel Armia also found the back of the net for Montreal.