Forward has 10 goals in past five games for Toronto, which wins 6th in row
Recap: Maple Leafs at Golden Knights 2.22.24
By Paul Delos Santos
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
LAS VEGAS – Auston Matthewsscored his League-leading 52nd goal of the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 7-3 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.
Matthews has scored 10 times during a five-game goal streak.
Max Domi scored twice, Pontus Holmberg had a goal and an assist, and Mitchell Marner had two assists for the Maple Leafs (32-16-8), who have won six in a row. Martin Jones made 22 saves.
“When we get everyone going like that, we’re a tough team to beat,” Domi said. “We can play with anyone. We have four lines going short and hard. Everyone sticking to their game plan, keeping it simple, staying disciplined. When we do that, we come at teams in waves. That’s the ex-Stanley Cup Champions. They might not have had their best tonight, but that’s a tough team to play against. We just got to keep building."
TOR@VGK: Matthews gets a piece of the blast by Holmberg
Jonathan Marchessault had a goal and an assist, and Shea Theodore had two assists for the Golden Knights (32-19-6), who have lost four of five. Adin Hill allowed three goals on 20 shots before being replaced in the first period by Logan Thompson, who made 18 saves.
“The big emphasis is the first period. I mean, you got some guys who can score, right?” Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “So, you got to defend those guys as a group of five. I thought we got a little bit disconnected defensively, so we just need to be better as a whole defensively, especially this last stretch here.”
Jake McCabe gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead at 10:00 of the first period when his one-timer from the top of the right circle hit Hill’s arm and deflected in off defenseman Alec Martinez.
David Kampf made it 2-0 at 11:10. He picked up the puck in the bottom of the right circle, cut through the crease and stuffed it in around Hill’s outstretched right pad.
John Tavares extended the lead to 3-0 at 14:20 with a wrist shot short side from the right circle.
TOR@VGK: Tavares sends it into the twine to extend the lead
Domi made it 4-0 at 16:11, putting his own rebound past Thompson from the bottom of the right circle.
“We got through the first few minutes where they were really coming at us,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Once we adjusted to the game -- that’s a good team over there, quite obviously, they play at a high level, compete at a high level. So, it demands more of the group -- Once we adjusted to that, we really started to come. We started to skate really well. We had to be committed to getting to that space. Every single line did a really good job.”
William Karlsson cut it to 4-1 with a wrist shot from the high slot 51 seconds into the second period.
Domi responded to make it 5-1 at 11:44 after a miscommunication between Brayden McNabb and Chandler Stephenson allowed him to collect the puck at the blue line and finish on a breakaway.
“We were late on pucks all over the ice and you made some egregious mistakes, and they capitalized. That's what happened,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said.
TOR@VGK: Domi scorches in alone and fires in a nasty wrister
Holmberg make it 6-1 at 15:36. He poke the puck away from Marchessault in the neutral zone, drove in on Thompson and scored on a breakaway.
Marchessault scored 59 seconds into the third period with a snap shot from the bottom of the right circle to make it 6-2.
Michael Amadio then scored 26 seconds later to cut it to 6-3, taking a seam pass from Ivan Barbashev in the bottom of the right circle and beating Jones with a snap shot.
Matthews pushed it to 7-3 at 10:35. He dropped the puck to Holmberg as he entered the offensive zone before redirecting Holmberg’s wrist shot past Thompson.
“It was a good job by ‘Matty’, and I found him,” Holmberg said. “It was a good goal. His play is really good. He scored again. That dude is crazy.”
NOTES: The Maple Leafs’ six-game winning streak is their longest this season. They have outscored opponents 34-14 since the streak began on Feb. 13. … Marner is the first Toronto player to record multiple assists in six consecutive games. He has 15 assists during the stretch. … Matthews became the second Maple Leafs player since 1943-44 to score 10 goals in a five-game span, joining Rick Vaive (1982-83).
