Getty Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs
It is not that NHL players score 100 points every season, let alone reach that milestone every night. That is what happened on Saturday as Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews recorded his 100th point of the season for the second time in three years.
You might think that Matthew’s celebration of that history-making point is the thing that will always be remembered. And you’d be wrong. Matthews went viral on Saturday, April 6, but for another entirely different reason.
Reaves took on Pezzetta then started going at the Montreal bench 😳🥊
With the game between the Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens midway through the second period (Toronto had a 3-0 lead), Matthews’ teammate Ryan Reaves dropped the gloves to fight opposing winger Michael Pezzetta.
Matthews’ reaction to the fight, won by Reaves, was priceless. It was a tiny, brief moment, but it went incredibly viral racking up more than 1,500 likes on X (formerly known as Twitter) thanks to a post sent out by the B/R Open Ice account.
Matthews’ reaction to Reavo’s fight 🤣
Auston Matthews Has Scored 100 Points in 2 of the Last 3 Seasons
The Maple Leafs brought Mitch Marner back to their lineup on Saturday after he missed a few weeks with a lower-body injury, as documented by Heavy before the matchup.
Marner’s return, however, was far from the main story of the game. That was, of course, Matthews, who scored his 64th goal of the season and notched 100 points on the year for the second time in his career and the last three years.
64 goals and 100 points for Auston Matthews. The @MapleLeafs forward joined rare U.S.-born company in NHL history with multiple 100-point seasons (also 106 in 2021-22).
According to the NHL Public Relations Department, Matthews “joined rare U.S.-born company in NHL history with multiple 100-point seasons (also 106 in 2021-22)” after scoring his 100th point on Saturday.
Matthews is now one of only seven U.S.-born players in NHL history with at least two 100-point campaigns, something only one man in history (Jeremy Roenick) has topped by getting to 100 points in three different campaigns throughout his career.
Auston Matthews has 64 goals and the Leafs have scored twice in 17 seconds 😱
Matthews’ 64th goal and 100th point came in the second period of Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Canadiens. All six goals were scored in the middle frame, with Toronto going up 4-0 before allowing their foes to attempt a short-circuited comeback.
The Leafs forward, who leads the league in goals with an 11-goal advantage over Sam Reinhart (53), is chasing scoring 70 goals this season. Matthews has six games left and if he reaches that mark he will be the first NHL player to score 70 goals since Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny both did it in the 1993 season.
Toronto Shuffles Forwards, Stumbles Upon Genius Lineup
The return of Marner and his multi-week absence seemingly helped Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe change his lineup by inserting Marner in the second line instead of pairing him with Matthews in the first one.
Keefe left the Tyler Bertuzzi-Matthews-Max Domi line intact atop the forward pecking order. Following that starting unit, however, Keefe placed Marner on the second line along with center John Tavares and left winger Bobby McMann, per Daily Faceoff.
The move paid off, as the first line scored 2 goals in 17 seconds for Toronto putting the Leafs up 2-0 early in the second period and taking a lead they will never give up throughout the game.
Toronto solidified its position as the third-best team in the Atlantic Division with 97 points in 76 games. The Leafs have a 4-point advantage over fourth-place Tampa Bay (93 points) with a game in hand over the Lightning.
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