Auston Matthews achieved the 4th hat trick of his NHL career to help the Toronto Maple Leafs blow past the Colorado Avalanche 8-2 Wednesday night. Matthews scored season goals 11, 12, and 13 on the night, his hat-raining effort coming with under 9 minutes to go in period 3 to make it 7-2 for a Toronto touchdown.
William Nylander lit the lamp for the Leafs first at the 4:31 mark of period 1, his 10th of the season. A few minutes later at 7:57, Jason Spezza (5) made it 2-0 Leafs. Matthews then logged his first of the night at 14:24. And although it looked like Toronto would carry a 3-0 lead into the first intermission, Colorado did manage to break the ice courtesy of Samuel Girard's 2nd of the season to cut the Leafs lead to 3-1.
In the 2nd period, no goals were scored until about 12 minutes in, and this time, Colorado got the early advantage, making it 3-2 Toronto, with former Leaf Nazem Kadri's 8th. That would be the only other goal scored by the Avs for a while, though, as Toronto would respond with efforts by Travis Dermott (1) and John Tavares (11) to make it 5-2 Leafs.
Toronto got a lightning fast start in the 3rd period, Matthews scoring his 12th of the season just 44 seconds in, extending the Leafs lead to 6-2. About 8 minutes later, he would complete his hat trick; 7-2 Toronto. Then 2 minutes after that, Pierre Engvall's 3rd of the season made it 8-2 Maples. After those two goals, Colorado managed to sneak one more past Leafs netminder Jack "Soup" Campbell to make it 8-3. And who else to do it but Nazim Kadri again?
The Leafs outshot the Avs 41-31, won more faceoffs 42-22, and logged more penalty minutes 10-6. Colorado did manage to be more physical than Toronto with a 27-16 hits advantage.
Next up for Toronto is a Saturday evening trip to St. Paul to face the Minnesota Wild at 7 PM. For Colorado, they play tonight, Dec. 2, with a puddle jump to Montreal to face Les Canadiens.
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