Austin Matthews makes history in Leafs loss

Despite his playoff woes, Auston Matthews cemented his place as one of the greatest players in Toronto Maple Leafs history in a 6-5 shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena.

In his 445th game at the Pittman Arena, the American center tallied 500 and 501 points. Thus, a Leafs player to reach this milestone became the fastest in the history of the organization.

Matthews first caught the assist against William Nylander in the second period, then used the needle himself to make it 5-4.

No. 34 also hit the target in a shootout, as did teammate Mitchell Marner. But the Blues had the upper hand as Robert Thomas, Pavel Bukhnevitch and Brayden Sheen won their duels against Ilya Samsonov.

Michael Ponting, who was to begin preliminary discussions with Kyle Dubas over a contract extension according to TSN, shone in the defeat by scoring twice. He notably forced an extension hold by touchdown on goal in a power play.

Brandon Saad also scored two goals, but for the opposite side. Shane, Jordan Kerou and Josh Leveaux completed the scoring for the visitors.

Pierre Engvall opened the scoring for the Maple Leafs.

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Coyotes can’t help the CH issue

At Sunrise, the Arizona Coyotes faced off-season starter Matthew Tkachuk and lost 5-3 to the Florida Panthers.

Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes had to watch this duel carefully, as he holds the Panthers’ first-round pick. In addition, the Coyotes are one of CH’s biggest competitors in the National Hockey League’s realignment lottery.

However, the eldest of the Tkachuk brothers did not agree to Hbs’s wish. Instead, he completed a hat-trick against Al-Sahara, who ended their 2-0 deficit.

Jacob Cicciron, Clayton Keeler and Nick Begstad flashed the red light in the first half to make it 3-3, however, the Utes never beat Spencer Knight again.

Former CH Eric Staal scored twice for the Panthers. His brother Mark was also a partner in his first success.

Thompson gets the upper hand in ‘Ovi’

In Washington, Alexander Ovechkin continued his stellar two-time scoring streak, but the Capitals lost 5-4 to the Buffalo Sabers due to Taj Thompson’s brilliance.

Giant figure player completes a hat-trick in overtime to reach the plateau by 30 goals. He also made an assist in the first half on Alex Toch’s goal.

Meanwhile, Ovechkin shook the ropes in the second and third sets. He came within 88 goals of Wayne Gretzky (894) and the best scorer in league history.