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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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The Toronto Maple Leafs made Sin City their own Thursday night, exploding for three third-period goals to down the Vegas Golden Knights 6-3. Auston Matthews led the way with two scores, including the 100th goal of his NHL career, while Toronto produced at even strength, on the power play and shorthanded. The Leafs improve to 3-1-0 on their six-game road trip, and 36-18-3 on the season. 

 

TAKEAWAYS

Ahead by a Century

It looked like Auston Matthews had scored the 100th goal of his NHL career in the second period of Thursday’s game when the 21-year-old centre’s shot snaked off of Marc-Andre Fleury’s skate and into the net. But his linemate Patrick Marleau got credit for Toronto's game-tying marker, and Matthews was left stuck at 99 goals. 

Less than five minutes later, though, Matthews had his milestone, converting on the Leafs’ fifth power play of the game with a patented wrist shot past Fleury to net career goal No. 100.

Matthews needed only 187 NHL contests to reach that benchmark, the fastest Leaf to do so in the modern era, and the only other player in franchise history to score 100 goals within his first 200 regular season games with Toronto (Busher Jackson was first, in 1934).

In the bigger picture of the NHL, Matthews became the third-fastest player to accomplish the feat before age 22 since 1989-90 (behind Patrik Laine and Rob Brown). 

Not only was Matthews’ goal important personally, it was important for Toronto at the time, and reflected how dominant he was against Vegas. 

The Leafs were set up well entering the second period, leading Vegas 1-0 off a power play marker by Andreas Johnsson. 

That advantage wouldn’t last far into the middle frame, vanishing in a span of 4:36 between Paul Stastny’s shorthanded strike and an unmarked Oscar Lindberg’s perfectly placed shot past Frederik Andersen that created a 2-1 deficit for Toronto. 

Matthews’ line with Marleau and Kasperi Kapanen was on the ice when Lindberg scored, but remained unfazed going back to work generating the equalizer only 90 seconds later. Matthews followed that up with his memorable go-ahead goal to put the Leafs up 3-2 heading into the third. 

Soon, it would be their turn to score in bunches, and Matthews was in the thick of it.

After William Karlsson tied the game with a terrific deflection, a heavy shift by John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman teed up Morgan Rielly’s tying goal, a seeing-eye shot through traffic. Only 55 seconds later, Matthews let go a sensational shot from the slot in front of Fleury, to give Toronto a 5-3 advantage. 

Marner doubled the lead with a shorthanded goal late in the period, set up perfectly by Connor Brown. 

For all the showmanship Vegas brings to its arena, Matthews proved to be the real star of the night. Before leaving on this six-game road swing, Matthews had said his unit could be better, and Toronto’s last two games have been among their best. On Thursday, Matthews was the Leafs’ best player by far, producing 84 per cent possession when on the ice and tossing in a team-leading six shots on goal along with his two goals and one assist.

Bad luck, Little John

Early in the second period of Thursday’s affair, Johnsson was taking a pass at the offensive blueline when Golden Knights defenceman Brayden McNabb came charging in his direction and connected with Johnsson in a knee-on-knee collision. 

Johnsson was in immediate pain on the ice, and required help getting to the bench and down the tunnel. He would not return with what the Leafs deemed to be a leg injury. McNabb was assessed a minor penalty for kneeing. 

There’s never a good time for a player to get hurt, but in Johnsson’s case the timing was especially poor. The winger’s goal in the first period against Vegas was his fifth in six games, matching Johnsson’s goal production from the previous two months combined (22 games). He had earned a promotion off the fourth line onto Nazem Kadri’s line with William Nylander earlier in the week and was among the Leafs’ most effective forwards lately. 

The surge coincided with Johnsson coming back from a concussion that forced him to sit out Toronto’s last game before the bye week in January. 

Should Johnsson be sidelined for long, Tyler Ennis is in the wings just waiting for a chance to play again. Ennis broke his ankle on Dec. 22 and was activated off Injured Reserve on Feb. 10, making him a healthy scratch in the Leafs’ last two games. Now, Ennis may have his opening. 

The 29-year-old has seven goals and four assists in 33 appearances for Toronto this season. 

While there is no timetable as of yet for how long Johnsson might be out, Toronto been fortunate in its health all year – the Leafs are credited with the fewest man games lost to injury this season at 183. 

Pumped up power play? 

The Leafs’ too-dormant power play finally came to life on Tuesday, registering three goals in Toronto’s win over Colorado. While that marked the first multi-goal game for the man advantage since Dec. 20, Thursday’s game would produce another milestone of sorts for the Leafs – the first time they had registered power play goals in consecutive games since a three-game stretch from Nov. 26 - Dec. 1. 

It didn’t take long to get the power play goal against Vegas either. The Leafs had their first crack with the extra man midway through the opening frame, and while the first unit was ineffective, Toronto’s second group came up big when Johnsson gamely redirected Gardiner’s shot to give the Leafs a 1-0 lead.

Any hope of building momentum off that success quickly diminished over the Leafs’ next two (far more ineffective) power play tries in the first period, where many of the same problems with zone entries and puck movement that have plagued the Leafs’ man advantage for weeks were back in full force. 

On top of that, the Leafs struggled against Vegas’ sixth-ranked penalty kill, spending too much time chasing the aggressive killers around the defensive zone trying to get the puck back. 

The more chances Toronto got, though, the more they wore the Golden Knights down, until Matthews was able to convert again on the Leafs’ fifth chance. Prior to Thursday, the Leafs had come up with consecutive multi-goal games on the power play only once before, in their fourth and fifth games of the season (Oct. 9-11). 

While the Leafs were putting pucks in Vegas’ net, they were giving up ample opportunity for the Golden Knights to do the same at the other end while shorthanded. On every one of Toronto’s six power plays, Vegas pounced on loose pucks and pressured Andersen, minimizing the effectiveness of their man advantage. In total, the Leafs gave up seven shots to the Golden Knights’ penalty killers over their six power plays; by comparison, Vegas had eight shots on their three power plays. 

Toronto finished 2-for-6 with the extra man. 

Freddie fumbles, and recovers

At times, Andersen makes his job between the pipes look easy. Other times, it becomes unnecessarily difficult.  

Both aspects were on display in Vegas, starting in the first period where Vegas’ best chances came while on the penalty kill. 

Andersen had to halt a shorthanded breakaway attempt by Reilly Smith during the Leafs’ first power play chance, made tougher by the fact Andersen hadn’t seen any action for several minutes while the Leafs controlled play in Vegas’ end. 

The goalie then nearly hurt himself playing the puck on Toronto’s next power play, meaning to send a pass to Jake Gardiner but inadvertently putting it on Smith’s stick again. He had to make the ensuing post-to-post stop to keep Vegas off the board.

Andersen’s luck against the kill ran out early in the second, though. While handling the puck shorthanded, he tried to send the puck to Gardiner again but the execution was sloppy and Stastny intercepted to bury the Golden Knights’ eighth shorthanded goal of the season and tie the game. 

Both Lindberg and Karlsson’s goals were well-executed, and the Golden Knights were continually targeting Andersen's glove side as they kept pressing for more.

Andersen made two more great saves on Toronto’s power play in the third, when his team continued to lack any response for the aggressive and opportunistic nature of the Vegas kill.  On the Golden Knight’s own power play, Andersen was called upon for a couple high-danger saves too, and pulled through. 

In what ended up being a relatively high-scoring contest with a combined 76 shots on goal (43 by Toronto, 33 by the Golden Knights), Andersen made the toughest stops to keep Vegas out of his net and give the Leafs chances to rally in a back-and-forth contest. He finished with 30 saves and a .909 save percentage. 

Blue and White Trending

Tracking Leafs’ trends all season long

Including Thursday’s win, Toronto is 9-0-0 on the road against Western Conference teams this season. 

Next game

The Leafs continue their six-game road trip against Arizona on Saturday. ​