{"id":276679,"date":"2023-10-17T09:57:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T14:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=276679"},"modified":"2023-10-17T10:10:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T15:10:34","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-beat-minnesota-wild-7-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=276679","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs Beat Minnesota Wild 7 – 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Toronto –\u00a0Auston Matthews<\/a>\u00a0scored his second hat trick in as many games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who defeated the Minnesota Wild 7-4 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews, who also had a hat trick in Toronto\u2019s 6-5 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, is the fifth player in NHL history to score a hat trick in each of his first two games to start a season, joining Alex Ovechkin (2017-18), Cy Denneny (1917-18), Joe Malone (1917-18) and Reg Noble (1917-18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the work ethic has been there both games, and as a line just moving our feet, making sure we are taking care of each other defensively and just trying to attack offensively, and obviously the puck has been going in, so that\u2019s always fun and always positive,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Nylander<\/a> had two goals and an assist, Calle Jarnkrok<\/a> had a goal and an assist, and Ilya Samsonov<\/a> made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs (2-0-0). John Tavares<\/a> and Mitchell Marner<\/a> each had two assists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been fun,\u201d Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. \u201cYou don\u2019t expect back-to-back hat tricks of course, but I\u2019ve gotten somewhat comfortable and used to Auston having big nights and making a big impact. But to do so on back-to-back nights to start a season, it\u2019s terrific. He looks like he\u2019s having lots of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would never question Auston\u2019s motivation and work ethic and commitment. He\u2019s as dialed in as anybody, but I do think he has come in refreshed and healthy. I think he\u2019s had a really good offseason. Auston is focused on the big picture. He\u2019s looking to really drive our team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marco Rossi<\/a> scored his first NHL goal, and Filip Gustavsson<\/a> made 26 saves for the Wild (1-1-0).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA couple power-play goals, a couple breaks, but again we thought we were pretty good,\u201d Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it looked like up top, but we made some mistakes in the third period and some stuff in the defensive zone (that) we can clean up. But before that we were pretty tight and we were getting our looks. It\u2019s simply the momentum changed. Do we have to be more resilient? Sure, but we have to be careful to not shoot ourselves like we did here tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Hartman gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 9:32 of the first period, redirecting Kirill Kaprizov’s shot from the right point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews tied it 1-1 at 10:54, receiving a pass in the slot from Mitchell Marner, who was along the right boards, and beating Gustavsson blocker side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews then put Toronto ahead 2-1 at 12:35 when his centering pass deflected in off the skate of Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin during a 4-on-3 power play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWow. I think he\u2019s been incredible,\u201d Nylander said. \u201cTaking pucks to the net, scoring all kind of goals. He\u2019s been dialed in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nylander made it 3-1 at 19:37 of the first. He made a move in the left circle, cut inside on Joel Eriksson Ek across the crease, and tucked the puck past Gustavsson’s outstretched glove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJohn (Tavares) kicked it out to me, and I tried to see what was happening, and eventually I was able to take it to the net and score, so I think John did a great job pulling the guys on to him so I had more space,\u201d Nylander said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyler Bertuzzi scored his first goal with the Maple Leafs to extend the lead to 4-1 at 3:35 of the second period. He swatted in a bumper pass from Jarnkrok from in front on a power play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Boldy responded 34 seconds later to make it 4-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rossi, who was playing in his 23rd NHL game, then cut it to 4-3 at 9:51 when he batted in a rebound at the top of the crease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jarnkrok answered to make it 5-3 at 9:54 of the third period, tapping in a centering pass from Morgan Rielly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews completed the hat trick with a backhand on a wraparound to push it to 6-3 at 10:25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been special,\u201d Rielly said of Matthews. \u201cHe\u2019s feeling it and has had a good start to the season, so when your guy is doing that and controlling the game, putting the puck in the net, it gives us a good chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nylander made it 7-3 at 12:14, beating Gustavsson short side from the left circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Duhaime scored at 17:32 for the 7-4 final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust a couple of bad bounces,” Duhaime said. “They got a couple (in the third period) and got the momentum right away, so we\u2019ll watch the tape and address it, but not our best effort.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minnesota Wild President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin indicated to reporters this morning at practice in Montreal that forward Matt Boldy is week-to-week due to an upper body injury suffered during the third period of Saturday’s game at Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain defenseman Jared Spurgeon is still out with an upper body injury suffered in the preseason at Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto –\u00a0Auston Matthews\u00a0scored his second hat trick in as many games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who defeated the Minnesota Wild 7-4 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday. Matthews, who also had a hat trick in Toronto\u2019s 6-5 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, is the fifth player in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":274354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276679"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276692,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276679\/revisions\/276692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/274354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}