In the Toronto Maple Leafs’ last game of March 2024, a big milestone was hit for none other than Auston Matthews. The Leafs were up 2–0 against the Buffalo Sabres with under six minutes to go. Matthews was playing his shift like a man possessed and it felt like his 60th of the season was an inevitability.
A big effort for the Big 60
New Sabre Bowen Byram was supposed to make a fairly harmless play retrieving a puck tipped into his defensive zone, but what looked to be a broken stick meant he had to drop it midplay and Matthews surged in to take advantage of the situation. A quick move turned Byram around as he couldn’t do much to defend, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made the initial save anyway.
Byram, still stickless, kicked the puck into the corner, exactly where Matthews was, and a behind-the-net shot went off the outside of the goalpost. With all five Sabres players now collapsed into the slot, Matthews slot pass went straight through to Conor Timmins.
Timmins took a shot from afar and the rebound fell right in front of Matthews to tap it into the wide-open net.
From Matthews jumping into the one-on-one play with Byram to then getting a break with the stick issue, to not giving up on the play after hitting the post on a second-chance effort, to getting himself right into the crease for the easy tap-in, it was a hard-earned goal that made the milestone all the sweeter.
More goals still in sight
The Leafs still have nine games to go in the season. Matthews has a great opportunity to set a modern-era goal-scoring record as he can pass Alex Ovechkin for the most goals scored in the salary cap era. Matthews needs just six goals in nine games to do it.
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