Auston Matthews leads Toronto Maple Leafs to victory over the St. Louis Blues.
Matthews scores NHL-leading 49th goal in Maple Leafs’ victory over Blues.
ST. LOUIS (AP) Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 49th goal of the season and added an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-2 on Monday.
“It’s pretty nice to watch him,” Matthew Knies said of Matthews. “He’s been a tremendous leader. He’s a huge effect on our entire squad. “I’m very happy for him.”
Matthews, the first choice in the 2016 NHL Draft, had scored hat tricks in his previous two games. His go-ahead goal came on a power play at the start of the third period. He has 14 goals and nine assists on the power play this season.
Knies also scored, and William Nylander added a short-handed goal for the Maple Leafs. Bobby McMann scored an empty-net goal. Mitchell Marner recorded two assists.
Ilya Samsonov recorded 19 saves for Toronto.
“I feel great. It’s not just one guy. “It’s a team sport,” Samsonov explained. “We played smartly. We played well. We did an excellent job and received two points.
Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich scored for St. Louis. Joel Hofer blocked 25 shots.
Toronto won its fourth game in a row, sweeping the two-game series between the rivals.
“Overall, it was a good road game for us,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe explained. “We did enough good things to get the win.”
The Blues have lost three out of their last four games.
“We didn’t win a game because we made mistakes that led to goals,” Blues interim coach Drew Bannister explained.
To break a 1-1 tie, Matthews scored 44 seconds into the third period with a wrist shot from the slot. To start the power play, officials called a high-sticking penalty on Jordan Kyrou.
Nylander scored an unassisted shorthanded goal at 7:29. Nylander scored his 29th goal while keeping the ball on a 2-on-1 rush.
“I saw (Pontus) Holmberg driving backside and I decided to shoot it myself,” Nylander was quoted as saying. “I saw the goalie go back and I shot it.”
The Blues added a late goal after withdrawing their goalkeeper, when Buchnevich tipped Torey Krug’s shot and scored at 18:52.
McMann scored at 19:22.
After a scoreless first period with only 12 total shots attempted, Toronto scored 22 seconds into the second period on a goal by Knies. Matthews found Knies, who fired a wrist shot into the upper left corner of the net for his tenth goal.
“I just saw I had some space in the middle there,” Knies went on to say. “Once that opened up, I simply wanted to throw it at the net. Fortunately, it worked for me.”
At 17:14 of the second period, Saad scored his 15th goal with one second remaining on the power play, tying the game at 1-1. He fired a wrist shot from the slot after receiving the puck from Colton Parayko.
“I just tried to take it off immediately. “I think I felt a little pressure on my back,” Saad explained. “Parayko made a good play to the middle, I just tried to turn with it and get a shot off.”
UP NEXT:
The Maple Leafs will visit Arizona on Wednesday night.
The Blues will host the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
