Matthews continued off of his dynamic season opening performance with another hat trick against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. His first goal came off a Mitch Marner pass into the slot that he buried in the first period to tie the game at 1-1 for the Leafs. Matthews followed that up a minute and a half later on the power play with his second goal, a shot from a tight angle that gave the Leafs a 2-1 lead.
The performance comes after Matthews’ hat trick in the season opener on Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens. He scored the first game-tying goal in the second period of that game to make it 2-2, and followed up with the two goals to help overcome the second two-goal deficit that the Leafs faced in that game to tie it 5-5. The Leafs would go on to win that game in the shootout 6-5.
With this performance, Matthews becomes the fifth player in NHL history to score a hat trick in both of his first two games of the season. Three of the four come in the NHL’s inaugural season in 1917-18 from Cy Denneny, Joe Malone and Reg Noble, with the fourth coming exactly 100 years later from Alex Ovechkin in the 2017-18 season.
The back-to-back hat tricks gives Matthews six goals in two games, and six points total as he has yet to get a point on the season. It currently puts him on pace to score 246 goals this season. It also gets him 15% of the way to his 40 goal season in 2022-23, which was considered a down season for the center.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Auston Matthews records second straight hat trick, Maple Leafs whip Wild 7-4TORONTO — Auston Matthews dealt with a series of nagging injuries last season. And still put up 85 points in just 74 games. Now fully healthy, the Maple Leafs star is looking a lot like his MVP-calibre self early on in 2023-24.
Source: BurnabyNOW_News - 🏆 14. / 77 Read more »
Auston Matthews records second straight hat trick, Maple Leafs whip Wild 7-4TORONTO — Auston Matthews dealt with a series of nagging injuries last season. And still put up 85 points in just 74 games. Now fully healthy, the Maple Leafs star is looking a lot like his MVP-calibre self early on in 2023-24.
Source: PGCitizen - 🏆 65. / 51 Read more »
Auston Matthews records second straight hat trick, Maple Leafs whip Wild 7-4TORONTO — Auston Matthews dealt with a series of nagging injuries last season. And still put up 85 points in just 74 games. Now fully healthy, the Maple Leafs star is looking a lot like his MVP-calibre self early on in 2023-24.
Source: SooToday - 🏆 8. / 85 Read more »
Source: BurnabyNOW_News - 🏆 14. / 77 Read more »
Source: PGCitizen - 🏆 65. / 51 Read more »
Source: SooToday - 🏆 8. / 85 Read more »