Auston Matthews sets Maple Leafs record with 55 goals, most ever in a season
Posted April 7, 2022 10:20 pm.
Last Updated April 7, 2022 11:18 pm.
Auston Matthews made history on Thursday, surpassing Rick Vaive for most goals scored in a single season with 55.
Matthews set the record against the Dallas Stars, scoring in the second period to give the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead.
Goal No. 55 for @AM34 ???? @MapleLeafs record
Matthews set the franchise mark for most goals in a single season exactly 40 years and three days after Rick Vaive (54) first did so on April 4, 1982.#NHLStats: https://t.co/7IgTkMFmr3 pic.twitter.com/aUMEz0onqe
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 8, 2022
But he wasn’t done there. Matthews would go on to score the overtime winner, potting his 56th goal for good measure and giving the Maple Leafs a 4-3 win.
On Monday, Matthews matched Vaive’s 54 goals, set in 1982, after he recorded a hat trick in a 6-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 24-year-old centre now stands alone, with 11 games left on the schedule as he goes for 60.
Lightning centre Steven Stamkos is the most recent player to score 60 goals in a season, in 2011-12. Washington Capitals winger Alexander Ovechkin potted 65 goals in 2007-08.
“It’s humbling,” Matthews said of matching Vaive. “It means a lot, obviously, just to be in the same sentence as a guy like Rick and these other guys that have come before, representing what it means to be a Toronto Maple Leaf.”
Vaive scored more than 50 goals three times in his career with the Leafs. Gary Leeman and Dave Andreychuk are the other two Maple Leafs to accomplish the feat.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime in his career he doesn’t get 70 goals,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said before Monday’s game.
“Auston is probably the best in the league at changing his angle at a high rate of speed. He shoots from his ankles, from out wide. His release and velocity are big time. Plus, he’s not afraid to shoot. You don’t care if you have that arsenal of weapons he has.”
Matthews will now look to reach the 100-point mark for the first time in his career.
The last Maple Leaf to score over 100 points was Daryl Sittler in 1975-76. Sittler and Doug Gilmour are the only two players to score over 100 points in a single season in team history.
