In Toronto on opening night, Auston Matthews struck for a goal in his fourth straight opening game. He is just the fourth player in NHL history to accomplish the feat.
In the process, the Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Ottawa Senators, 5-3.
“I really try to score every game, so I don’t know what to say (about the record),” Matthews said. “[William Nylander] made an unbelievable pass on the first goal, and then [Mitchell Marner] with eyes in the back of his head on the power play, it was an amazing pass and I just tried to get it off as quick as possible.”
Frederik Andersen made 23 saves to get the win.
“It was a perfect start for them. We were nervous and they banged it in our net,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said of the Senators taking a 1-0 lead 25 seconds into the first period. “Then we got three power plays in a row, we were borderline dysfunctional, we couldn’t move. I thought once we got through that and were down 1-0, we came out and just played.”
Matthews scored twice and Ilya Mikheyev, Frederik Gauthier and Trevor Moore also scored for Toronto.
The game was even for much of the first two periods before the Leafs pushed ahead in the third.
Brady Tkachuk, Scott Sabourin and Bobby Ryan were the Sens’ strikers.
“We came out hitting, working in the first period and got rewarded,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith, who made his NHL debut after being a Maple Leafs assistant the past four seasons. “In the second period, I didn’t think we were great but in saying that, they were really good too, so you have to give them credit.”
[WATCH: All Senators vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Craig Anderson made 37 saves in the loss.
“We had a competitive first period, we did a lot of good things, we were physical and had attention to detail,” Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki said. “I don’t know if it was because of the beginning of the year, we took that collective deep breath and that breath was maybe a little too deep and we lost our sense of urgency a little bit.”
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