Auston Matthews of San Ramon, CA notched his second National Hockey League career hat trick on Tuesday. Considered one of the best snipers in the NHL at the moment, Matthews scored thrice in a 7-4 Toronto Maple Leafs win over the New Jersey Devils at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario.
Matthews scored Toronto’s last three goals of the game. He put Toronto up 5-1 at 10:39 of the second period with a power play marker from Mitch Marner of Markham, Ontario and John Tavares of Mississauga, Ontario. The goal also turned out to be the game winning goal.
Matthews then put the Maple Leafs up 6-1 at 3:58 of the third period from Marner and Zach Hyman of Toronto, Ontario. Then Matthews’s hat trick marker came into an empty net as he scored unassisted with one minute and 20 seconds left in the game and put Toronto up 7-4.
In the three goal Toronto win, Matthews was one of six Maple Leafs to have a multi-point game. The others were Tavares (one goal and two assists), Hyman (one goal and one assist), William Nylander of Calgary, Alberta (one goal and one assist), Marner (two assists) and Rasmus Sandin of Uppsala, Sweden (two assists).
In 2019-20, Matthews has 34 goals, 23 assists and 57 points in 47 games. He is a +19 with six penalty minutes, 17 power play points, four game winning goals, 179 shots on goal, 31 blocked shots, 24 hits, 51 takeaways and 26 giveaways.
Matthews also leads the NHL with 25 even strength goals. He led the NHL with 32 even strength goals during his 2016-17 NHL rookie season. That year in winning the Calder Trophy, Matthews also registered his first career hat trick. In fact, he had four goals in a 5-4 Maple Leafs loss to the Ottawa Senators on October 12, 2016 in his first NHL regular season game.
With the win, the Maple Leafs are in third place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 25 wins, 16 regulation losses and six losses in extra time for 56 points. They hold down the seventh playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
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