Auston Matthews becomes 4th Maple Leafs player to score 50 goals in a season

Auston Matthews joined some rare air with his 50th goal of the season Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets.

He accomplished the feat by burying an empty-net goal late in a 7-3 Maple Leafs victory.

William Nylander added two on the power play to go along with an assist and Ilya Mikheyev had a short-handed goal as part of his first three-point night in the NHL for the Leafs.

Mark Giordano, with a goal and an assist, John Tavares and Timothy Liljegren also scored for Toronto, which got 20 saves from Erik Kallgren. Mitch Marner added three assists.

Nikolaj Ehlers, with a goal and an assist, Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastny replied for Winnipeg. Eric Comrie stopped 31 shots.

The Leafs were coming off key victories over the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins in the race for Atlantic Division playoff seeding, while the Jets picked up a crucial 3-2 shootout victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday as they continue to battle for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Matthews is just the fourth player in Toronto Maple Leafs history to hit the milestone, joining Rick Vaive – who did it three times-, Gary Leeman and Dave Andreychuk, who did it three years before Matthews was born.

For the first time in 28 years, the @MapleLeafs have a 50-goal scorer. Congratulations, @AM34! ????#NHLStats: https://t.co/avrCSV8nz9 pic.twitter.com/45NIyiFeVY

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 1, 2022

Matthews 50th came in just his 62nd game of the season — the fastest Leaf ever to the milestone.

“Pretty special just to do it at home …just the energy and atmosphere tonight was pretty special,” said Matthews. “I’m really fortunate to play with some pretty amazing players …some pretty good teams throughout these six years. It means a lot.”

Matthews has come close twice before and likely would have already scored 50 if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t disrupted the past two seasons. In 2019-20 he had 47 goals in 70 games before the season was cancelled early and in 2020-21 he won the Rocket Richard Award with 41 goals in 52 games.

Auston Matthews' 50, by type:

22 wrist shots
8 snap shots
7 backhanders
6 tips
5 slap shots
2 wraparounds

— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) April 1, 2022

Matthews ran away in the overall goal title last season, but things are much tighter this time around with Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl scoring eight in his last five contests to hit 49.

New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider is also in the Richard Trophy conversation with 46 goals in 68 games.