Auston Matthews and William Nylander both scored twice as the Toronto Maple Leafs won 6-3 over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Matthews, Nylander, Bobby McMann and John Tavares all scored in the Maple Leafs’ (31-16-8) fifth consecutive win. Mitch Marner recorded three assists and Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves.
Dylan Guenther, Barrett Hayton and Matias Maccelli had the goals for the Coyotes (23-29-4). Karel Vejmelka stopped 30 shots in Arizona’s 11th straight loss.
Tipping a pass from T.J. Brodie, McMann won a net front battle with Josh Brown before deflecting the puck past Vejmelka for a 1-0 Maple Leafs lead.
Sitting with 49 goals this season coming into the game, Matthews, who was raised in Scottsdale, scored his NHL-leading 50th of the season against his hometown team. Additionally, he became the quickest American-born player to reach 50 in a single season, taking only 54 games to do so.
AUSTON MATTHEWS HAS 50 GOALS IN 54 GAMES! 🚨
We are truly witnessing something special. pic.twitter.com/gyPVh75eQ5
— NHL (@NHL) February 22, 2024
As the clock continued to tick down in the first period, Arizona fell into penalty trouble with four calls against them.
Then when he sat in front of the Coyotes’ net, Nylander pounced on a rebound and capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play as a result.
The ‘Yotes struck back with two goals from Maccelli and Hayton in a 1:10 span to shrink their deficit to 3-2.
But with him already setting a milestone early on, Matthews regained the Leafs’ lead to two off a ridiculous play.
Skating in their offensive zone, Marner fed Matthews with a between-the-legs pass. Nylander and Marner would both had second-chance opportunities to score, but Marner’s shot ended up hitting Matthews’ shoulder before batting it in for a 4-2 edge.
Auston Matthews had 50 goals for like less than an hour…
He's already on to #51 🥵 pic.twitter.com/CIEs8S5bib
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 22, 2024
Sending the Coyotes into the second intermission down 4-3, Clayton Keller set up Guenther who fired a one-timer past Samsonov with 6.9 seconds left.
“When we were 5-on-5 in the second [period], we showed we can play with them,” Hayton said. “Obviously, we were able to fight back in the second and in the third was breakdowns, same thing. It was unacceptable. Can’t give up those scoring chances when you are playing players like that, teams like that.”
Nylander netted his second of the game and Tavares added another in the third on the road to the 6-3 win.
“I don’t think we had a bad start,” Coyotes head coach André Tourigny said. “At some point, they [Toronto] will have a shot. We had a shot, and didn’t score. It’s on us because we took penalties… all sort of penalties which we need to stay out of the box. We give them a chance, they score a second and a third.”
Next Games
Coyotes: Away at Winnipeg Jets (34-15-5) on Feb. 25 at 4 p.m. MST
Maple Leafs: Away at Vegas Golden Knights (32-18-6) on Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. MST
André Tourigny: Coyotes ‘have no confidence’ after 10th straight loss
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers the Arizona Coyotes, Cardinals and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account @AlecCipollini
