Star center Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 50th goal of the 2021-22 season as the Toronto Maple Leafs topped the Winnipeg Jets, 7-3, on Thursday. Matthews scored the Maple Leafs' sixth goal on an empty-netter with 2:06 remaining in the game.
In the process, he became the first Maple Leafs player to score 50 goals since Dave Andreychuk achieved the feat during the 1993-94 campaign. Andreychuk ended up scoring 53 goals that season. The 2016 top pick is the fastest player to reach the 50-goal plateau in a season since the 1995-96 campaign when Mario Lemieux (50 games), Jaromir Jagr (59 games), Alexander Mogilny (60 games) and Peter Bondra (62 games) accomplished the feat, according to ESPN.
"I don't know if I ever really envisioned it being an empty-netter goal, but I'll take it," Matthews said after the game. "I had some good chances tonight, just didn't go in. Fortunately that last one did."
Matthews also passed Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl for the league lead in the goals department. The Edmonton star currently has 49 goals this season.
Matthews is now one of just four players in franchise history that have scored 50 goals in a single season. Besides the aforementioned Andreychuk, Rick Valve scored 50 goals on three separate occasions and Gary Leeman reached that milestone during the 1989-90 season.
Matthews has been extremely close to hitting the 50-goal mark in the past.
Matthews scored 47 goals in 70 games during the 2019-20 campaign before the COVID-19 pandemic halted the season.He then had 41 goals in 52 games during the 2020-21 campaign, which was shorter than normal due to the COVID-19-shortened season.This time around, Matthews was able to reach 50 goals in 62 games. Matthews has missed three games due to injury and two games for a suspension earlier this season.
