Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 50th goal of the season and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the visiting Winnipeg Jets 7-3 on Thursday night.
Matthews scored Toronto’s sixth goal of the game into an empty net with 2:06 left in regulation. He moved past Leon Draisaitl (49 goals) of idle Edmonton for the league goal lead and became the first Maple Leafs player to reach the milestone since Dave Andreychuk scored 53 in 1993-94.
“I don’t know if I ever really envisioned it being an empty-netter goal, but I’ll take it,” Matthews said. “I had some good chances tonight, just didn’t go in.
“Fortunately that last one did.”
Matthews joined Andreychuk, Rick Vaive (three times) and Gary Leeman as the only Maple Leafs players to reach the half-century goal mark.
“Really special to be able to do it here in front of all the fans,” said Matthews, whose team hits the road for four straight starting…
