""That was great. It's always fun to win, but especially given that it was really back-and-forth," Matthews said. "I thought getting down early, we just stuck with it. I don't think we were necessarily playing bad, but caught a couple bad breaks, and we just didn't give up. We just kept pushing shift-by-shift and just kind of clawed our way back into the game.""
""I think it's kind of just in the moment," he said. "Obviously with the situation of the game, the back-and-forth and clawing our way back, it's an exciting moment. I think it's nothing that you're really thinking about or planning, it just kind of happens.""
""It's special just to be in the same sentence as (Sundin)," Matthews said. "Obviously guys like him and a number of others that came before us paved the way. I've worn the jersey and I think we all take a lot of pride in wearing the jersey and realize how special it is. So it definitely means a lot.""
Auston Matthews returned to the lineup and recorded a hat trick plus an assist, fueling a comeback from a 4-1 second-period deficit to a Maple Leafs victory. The team recovered from early setbacks, maintained effort shift-by-shift, and produced a go-ahead goal late in the third. Matthews has four goals and eight points in three games since the holiday break. The go-ahead goal sparked a spontaneous celebration described as an in-the-moment reaction to the game's back-and-forth intensity. The hat trick brought Matthews to 419 career goals, one shy of tying Mats Sundin as Toronto's all-time goals leader. The next opportunity to tie the record comes against the New York Islanders.
Read at TheLeafsNation
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]