Hats off to Matthews for three-goal game record as Leafs blast Ducks

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If the GTA gets collective head colds for a lack of hats this month, blame Auston Matthews.

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He keeps inducing fans to part with them with a club-record six three-goal games for the Maple Leafs this season, the latest on Saturday night in an 9-2 demolition of the Anaheim Ducks.

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At one stage of the evening, it seemed Matthews would reach 50 goals before the final horn at Scotiabank Arena as the team departs for a four-game Western U.S. road trip. He’s at 48, yet remains on pace for 70-plus to break his own team-record of 60.

Chants of ‘MVP’ for Matthews and ‘We want 10!’ broke out.

“Nice to have the support,” Matthews said afterwards. “I’ve always said playing here is a big honour. It’s something none of us take for granted.”

Matthews’ sixth hat trick of the season tied the league record held by Mario Lemieux.

“I can’t put that into words, to be in the same sentence as a guy like that,” said Matthews, who’d reached a career-high five points midway through the second period.

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Head coach Sheldon Keefe said he continues to be impressed by the accomplishments of No. 34.

“I’ve seen a lot of things from Auston now,” he said. “It seems like he’s raising the standard consistently. The way he’s been scoring, you know teams are talking about him, we’re sure they have a plan. But one of the great things about him is he continues to get available into spots.”

The Leafs also became the first NHL team since 2009-10 to have its players factor in three consecutive hat tricks in as many games, two by Matthews following Bobby McMann’s on Tuesday against St. Louis.

Already missing two veteran defencemen — the suspended Morgan Rielly and Mark Giordano after his father suddenly died on Thursday —the Leafs lost William Lagesson after the first period with an upper body injury. With Conor Timmins sidelined as well by mononucleosis, another blueliner might have to be summoned from the Marlies for next week’s trip.

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Toronto, which has struggled at Scotiabank Arena against weak teams, swept its three-game homestand, for the first time since December of 2022.

Anaheim’s Radko Gudas, who became the unwitting poster boy of the Leafs’ rather meek playoff elimination by Florida last season, was one of the Ducks caught out too long when Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies worked the puck to Matthews for his first-shot goal.

That book-ended him scoring the 2-1 winner in Anaheim last month after Lukas Dostal had made a franchise-record 55 saves.

This time, Toronto beat Dostal four times on its initial 16 shots, as McMann, with his first of two, and

William Nylander exposed his top corner from both angles on the power play.
Veteran John Gibson started the second period and gave up the rest, including two by Matthews who, in between, set up Tyler Bertuzzi’s long overdue sixth of the season after an agonizing post-Christmas slump.

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Moved to the top power-play unit with a minor injury keeping John Tavares out, Bertuzzi was located by Matthews in the blue paint with a perfect pass.

Bertuzzi was also out on Nylander’s man-advantage goal that Matthews and Timothy Liljegren asisted on. Liljegren, replacing Rielly on special teams, earned three assists.

Nylander’s goal, to go with the primary assist on Jake McCabe’s tally, gave him 500 NHL points after Matthews and Marner hit 600 this season.

Gudas, who was put on notice by Ryan Reaves when the latter joined the Leafs in the off-season, was eyed all evening by the Toronto enforcer, but first ended up on top of Max Domi in a first-period fight that followed a Nylander high stick.

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Gudas bumped Reaves on a line change in the second period, then cross-checked McMann after he’d made it 8-1. Domi tried to jump Gudas, but that’s as far as it got.

With Nylander penalized earlier, recent Toronto all-star game invitee Frank Vatrano scored, one of just three visitors’ shots against Martin Jones in the first period to the Leafs’ 18. Ryan Strome had Anaheim’s last late goal, with Robertson adding another for Toronto.

Jones was healthy enough to return after an undisclosed injury, giving Ilya Samsonov a rest before a projected start Monday afternoon in St. Louis

Joseph Woll is also nearing a return from a high ankle sprain.

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