Auston Matthews celebrated his comeback with a goal and an assist in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.
Matthews, who scored his 26th goal of the season, was playing his first game since Jan. 25. He missed five games during that time. He recorded the 150th game of his career with more than a career point, but he is still far from the leader in team history who is Mats Sundin with 274 games. Matthews ranks sixth among the Leafs.
The Maple Leafs scored three times in the first period, including William Nylander’s, which came just nine seconds into the game, making it the fourth-fastest goal in franchise history.
It was a 30th goal for Nylander, who also had two assists. It was also his sixth three-point game this season, a Toronto high.
Toronto now has 57 first-half goals this season. Only Tampa Bay, with 60 goals, did better.
Just 53 seconds following Nylander’s goal to open the game, Sam Lafferty tied the game for the Hawks at 1:02.
Rasmus Sandin, Conor Timmins and John Tavares with his 24th of the season are the other scorers for the Maple Leafs.
Philipp Kurashev was the author of the other goal in the loss of the Hawks, who suffered a third loss in a row.
Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves in front of the Leafs net. Petr Mrazek faced 37 saves for the Hawks.
Fleury loses his duel in front of the Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche held on to defeat the Minnesota Wild 3-2.
This victory is important between two teams fighting for a playoff spot in the Central Division. The Avalanche are ahead of the Wild in third place with 63 points, two more than the team from Minnesota, which played one more game.
Andrew Cogliano and Denis Malgin gave the Avalanche a 2-0 lead before seeing Joel Eriksson Ek reply for the Wild on the power play.
Nathan MacKinnon restored his team’s two-goal lead by beating Marc-André Fleury with a shot between the pads.
Kirill Kaprizov approached the Wild to one goal in the third period with his 31e net of the campaign, but despite attacks from the Wild late in the game, Alexandar Georgiev stood up to finish his game with 41 saves on 43 shots.
Fleury was much less busy in front of his goal with 16 saves on 19 shots.
Panarin and Zibanejad take charge of the Canucks
The New York Rangers benefited from two goals from Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad to edge the Vancouver Canucks 6-4.
The Rangers thus extended their winning streak with a sixth straight win while the Canucks suffered a third straight loss.
Panarin and Zibanejad also each got an assist to add to their tally. Panarin came close to completing his hat trick in an empty net, but his shot was blocked by Phillip Di Giuseppe.
Zibanejad took advantage of the comeback once morest the ramp to put the game out of reach for the Canucks. Chris Kreider and Kandre Miller also found the back of the net for New York.
Vladimir Tarasenko had an assist and Igor Shesterkin finished the game with 25 saves. In net for the Canucks, Arturs Silovs was playing his first game in the NHL. He stopped 22 pucks on 27 shots.
Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson suffered a lower-body injury in the first period.
Sabers finish strong
The Buffalo Sabers scored five unanswered goals late in the game to claim a 7-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Tage Thompson became the seventh fastest player in Sabers history to reach 70 points, a feat he achieved in just 53 games. He got his 36th goal of the campaign tonight.
Tyson Jost, Kyle Okposo, Zemgus Girgensons and Alex Tuch each had a goal and an assist in the win. Peyton Krebs, who tied the game 3-3 in the second period to start the Sabers’ push, and Casey Mittelstadt were the other scorers.
Goaltender Eric Comrie stopped 19 of the 22 shots he faced. His vis-à-vis Lukas Dostal made 37 saves.
In the defeat, Kevin Shattenkirk finally unlocked by finally scoring his first goal of the year following 101 shots. Cam Fowler scored a double.
The Sabers hit the target once on the power play, while the Ducks were shut out on two occasions.