Auston Matthews scored his 50th goal of the season as the Toronto Maple Leafs thumped the Winnipeg Jets 7-3 on Thursday night.
The sniper, who buried his team's sixth goal into an empty net with 2:06 left in regulation, is the first Leaf to hit the half-century mark since Dave Andreychuk scored 53 in 1993-94.
The Leafs were coming off key victories over the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins in the race for Atlantic Division playoff seeding, while the Jets picked up a crucial 3-2 shootout victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday as they continue to battle for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
The Leafs' list of absences also included defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin, who took a blindside punch to the head from Bruins winger Taylor Hall last time out. But the Leafs got back even at 3-3 just 23 seconds later when Tavares swatted his 23rd past Comrie, who got the start in place of Connor Hellebuyck in the second of a back-to-back.
Matthews, meanwhile, pressed for No. 50, but couldn't find a way through Comrie until the goaltender was on the bench for an extra an attacker. Matthews was twice robbed of 50 goals by COVID-19. He found the back of the net 47 times in 70 games in 2019-20 before the pandemic abruptly ended the regular season before putting up 41 in 52 contests over the course the 2020-21 coronavirus-shortened campaign to win his first Maurice Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goal-scorer.
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