The sniper, who buried his team’s sixth goal in an empty net with 2:06 remaining in regulation, is the first Leaf to score in half a century since Dave Andreychuk scored 53 in 1993-94. William Nylander added two to power play to go with an assist and Ilya Mikheyev had a short goal in his first three-point night in the NHL for the Leafs. Marc Giordano, with goals and assists, John Tavares and Timothy Liliegren also scored for Toronto (43-19-5), which got 20 saves from Eric Calgren. Mitch Marner added three assists. Nikolai Ehlers, with goals and assists, Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastney responded for Winnipeg (33-26-10). Eric Corey stopped 31 shots. The Leafs had significant victories over the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division playoff seed play-offs, while the Jets won a crucial 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabers on Wednesday as they continue to fight for a wild card. in the Western Conference. Matthews joins Andreicuk, Rick Vaive (three times) and Gary Lyman as the only Leafs to reach the half-century mark. “It feels like another day of play,” Matthews said after the team skating with 50 nods. “I’m not too worried about these things.” Kallgren started with Petr Mrazek likely to miss out for at least six weeks with his third invertebrate injury of the season in Tuesday’s 6-4 win over Boston. No. 1 goalkeeper Jack Campbell (rib disease) received medical leave to continue the action for the first time since March 8, but did not dress up for Toronto to start a four-game road trip from Saturday in Philadelphia. The Leafs absentee list also included defender Ilya Lyubushkin, who received a blindfold in the head from Bruins winger Taylor Hall last time out. The Jets, meanwhile, were down two players in the COVID-19 protocol – top scorer Kyle Connor and defender Nate Schmidt. Then 2-1 after the first period, Toronto tied with 1:58 in the second period, when Nylander scored a rebound from Matthews from the final boards over Comrie for his 25th goal of the season. Ellers then finished 21st – and seventh in the last 10 games – at home in a Winnipeg power play at 3:45 after a predicted Kallgren. But the Leafs even got back to 3-3 just 23 seconds later when Tavares won his 23rd pass from Comrie, who took the place of Connor Hellebuyck in the second of a back-to-back. Nylander won the second half of the night on the 26th of the year with another man advantage at 8:40, as the Leafs power play reconnected for Toronto’s first lead. Mikheyev made it 5-3 when he got a pass from Pierre Engvall with the Leafs kicking a penalty kick, matched the elf to his stick and shot 15th upstairs at 13:55 for his team’s top 11th goal from close range. . Nylander had a great chance to secure the second hat-trick of his career five minutes after the third, but it was his chance to rebound with Comrie at the mercy of leaving the stick of Jets defender Adam Stanley. Matthews, meanwhile, pushed for No. 50, but could not find a way to get past Comrie until the goalkeeper was on the bench for an extra attack. Winnipeg opened the scoring at 3:19 of the first when Wheeler went around Giordano before scoring 12th. The Jets made it 2-0 at 7:45 when Stastny took a rebound from the final boards and tricked Kallgren into a spin for his 18th. Giordano made up for his previous mistake in Wheeler’s goal, when his pass attempt stuck two defenders for the seventh game – and for the first time as Leaf at 15:03. Matthews twice stole 50 goals from COVID-19. He found the net 47 times in 70 games in 2019-20, before the pandemic abruptly ended the regular season before scoring 41 in 52 games during the 2020-21 campaign shortened by the coronavirus to beat his first Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy as the top scorer in the NHL. Matthews left the title last season, but things are much more difficult this time around with Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl scoring eight of his last five games to reach 49. “I’m not very surprised,” Matthews said before the game against Winnipeg. “He makes things happen every night.” Thursday was Matthews’s 62nd game of the season – he lost three due to injury and two due to a penalty – while Draisaitl was fit for each of Edmonton’s 68 games. New York Rangers striker Chris Kreider is also in contention for the Richard Trophy with 46 goals in 68 games. The Leafs and Jets played a physical game in Winnipeg in early December, with the hosts taking a 5-1 lead before leaving with a 6-3 victory. “Is there anything better than beating the Leafs?” Jets center Mark Scheifele asked his teammates after the match that night in a video that appeared on Winnipeg’s social media. “Something better;” Toronto definitely noticed. “That’s okay,” Leafs winger Wayne Simmonds said Thursday morning. “Most teams feel that way.” “I know that when I played Leafs I would like to crash them every time,” he added. “I know this feeling.” After Matthews scored his 50th, tough things continued with Toronto’s Kyle Clifford battling Brenden Dillon before Liljigren scored his second in a slow power game. This Canadian Press report was first published on March 31, 2022.
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