Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews grabs the puck during the third period against the Washington Capitals on March 20, 2024, in Washington. The Maple Leafs won 7-3.Nick Wass/The Associated Press
Auston Matthews still gets excited about facing Alex Ovechkin, one of his favourite players growing up. And even with Ovechkin authoring a vintage performance, Matthews found a way to steal the spotlight.
Matthews scored his NHL-leading 56th and 57th goals of the season and matched his career high with five points, leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 7-3 rout of the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night despite Ovechkin moving closer to Wayne Gretzky. Meanwhile, Matthews’ pursuit of the first 70-goal in more than three decades is back on track.
“When the world’s best are going at it like that, it’s always fun to watch,” Leafs forward Bobby McMann said. “Nice that we came out on the right side of it, but yeah it’s cool to see.”
Ovechkin scored goals 844 and 845 of his career to move 50 back of breaking Gretzky’s record that long seemed unapproachable. He’s now at 23 this season after scoring 15 goals since Jan. 22 to make up for just eight in his first 43 games.
“We’re all kind of running out of words to describe it,” Matthews said. “He’s the greatest goal-scorer of all-time, so it’s always fun to play against him still and still watch him get it done and the excitement and passion he gets when he scores goals. Obviously, we’d like to see him not score against us, but when you’re that good, you’re bound to get opportunities and he makes good on them most of the time.”
Matthews scoring twice – with a third, would-be hat trick goal getting called back on a coach’s challenge for offside – put him eight away from tying Ovechkin’s career-best season of 65 from 2007-08, which is the highest since the league’s salary cap era began in 2005.
“Obviously, we had zero answer for No. 34 tonight,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said, referring to Matthews’ jersey number.
And while Ovechkin and Matthews combined for four goals in a showcase of the best scorer of this generation and perhaps his successor, they were far from the only ones lightning the lamp. Connor McMichael also scored for Washington, and William Nylander, Jake McCabe, McMann, Tyler Bertuzzi and John Tavares had Toronto’s other goals in a nice bounce-back from a 4-3 loss Tuesday night at Philadelphia.
“We found a way to answer it as a group, and I thought everyone did a great job of that from the first shift,” said Max Domi, who had four assists. “Had everyone going, and we’re a tough team to beat when we play like that.”
As part of a high-event, quick scoring hockey game that was not friendly to the goaltenders, Joseph Woll made 18 saves in net for the Leafs and Charlie Lindgren made 22 for the Capitals, who failed to move back into a playoff position with their winning streak ending at three. They sit one point back of Detroit for the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“Nobody said it’s going to be easy,” Ovechkin said.
The Caps lost while playing without injured winger T.J. Oshie and forward Aliaksei Protas. Toronto enforcer Ryan Reaves was also out after being poked in the right eye during a fight Tuesday night in Philadelphia, while veteran defenceman T.J. Brodie was a healthy scratch.
Up next
Maple Leafs: Host Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.
Capitals: Face long-time centre Evgeny Kuznetsov for the first time Friday night when he and the Carolina Hurricanes visit Friday night.