Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews scores his 50th goal in 54 games

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Fifty goals in 54 games.

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Auston Matthews’ astonishing season continues. 

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The Maple Leafs centre scored on a power play in the first period against the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night in Tempe, Ariz., beating goalie Karel Vejmelka with a shot along the ice. 

Stationed to Vejmelka’s left at the side boards, Matthews took a pass from Timothy Liljegren and quickly fooled the netminder. 

The goal came at 5:01, and after Bobby McMann had given Toronto a 1-0 lead.

After the morning skate, Matthews was asked about the possibility of scoring his 50th in front of family and friends at Mullett Arena, not far from where he grew up in Scottsdale.

“It would be great, it would be cool,” Matthews said. “Just going to continue to go out there and try to execute and play my game.”

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Matthews became the first active National Hockey League player to score 50 goals in 55 games or fewer. Among active players, Connor McDavid previously scored 50 in the fewest number of games, hitting the milestone in 61 games in 2022-23.

Matthews has no equals in goal-scoring this season. Closest to him is Sam Reinhart of the Florida Panthers, who has 39 goals in 56 games.

Even if Matthews hits a dip or two before the regular season ends, he should still win the Rocket Richard Trophy for the third time in four years.

It’s the fastest to 50 goals by any NHL player since 1995-96, when Mario Lemieux scored 50 in 50 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Wayne Gretzky holds the NHL record, scoring 50 goals in 39 games during the 1981-82 season for the Edmonton Oilers.

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Two seasons after he scored 60 goals on his way to winning the Hart Trophy, Matthews became the fourth active player to have multiple 50-goal seasons. Alex Ovechkin has done it nine times, Leon Draisaitl three times and Steven Stamkos two times.

Also, Matthews became the second Maple Leaf to record multiple 50-goal seasons, joining Rick Vaive in the exclusive club. Vaive had three consecutive seasons with at least 50 goals, starting in 1981-82.

Matthews entered the game on Wednesday on pace for 75 goals. If he keeps it up, or just gets to 70, he will be the first NHL player to reach the milestone since 1992-93, when Alexander Mogilny had 76 for the Buffalo Sabres and Teemu Selanne 76 for the Winnipeg Jets.

In NHL history, the 70-goal milestone has been reached just 14 times. So, yes, if Matthews scores 70, there’s no question that he should be among the front-runners to win the Hart. 

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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