Matthews had a key assist on the opening goal and iced it with an impress bank shot off the side boards.
Matthews had a key assist on the opening goal and iced it with an impress bank shot off the side boards.
Auston Matthews has a knack for finding the back of the net. But on Thursday night the star center found an impressive way to score into an empty net by banking a clear off the side boards and into the net.
"He told me aced geometry," teammate Matthew Knies said of what Matthews' reaction to the goal.
The goal was Matthews' fourth of the season and helped cement the game in Toronto's favor, 4-1 against the Seattle Kraken.
The star helped opened the scoring with what looked like a set play off a faceoff in the attack zone. Matthews won the faceoff but carried the puck further deep, allowing Mitch Marner and Knies to pass it to each other before Knies scored his sixth goal of the season and third in as many games.
"Just a smart play by our captain on the draw," Maple Leafs head coach Criag Berube said of the play. "Understanding and recognizing something makes a heads-up play and they score. It was a big goal. Good goal."
William Nylander scored the other two Leafs goals as the club improved to 6-4-1 on the season and get set for a pair of back-to-back road games this weekend against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday followed by the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
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