NHL Roundup: Auston Matthews ties Leafs’ single-season goal mark, Flames edge Kings, and more
NHL Roundup for Monday, April 4, 2022 recaps and highlights all four games on the schedule.
The Boston Bruins picked up another big win to move into third in the Atlantic Division. In St. Louis, Vladimir Tarasenko powered the Blues to an easy 5-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes. And the Calgary Flames held off the Los Angeles Kings, who have been coming on strong for first in the Pacific Division.
We start the recaps in Tampa, where Auston Matthews magical performance tied him with Rick Vaive for the single-season goal mark at 54. In the process, the Maple Leafs took down their division rivals the Lightning.
“It’s humbling, it means a lot, just to be in the same sentence as a guy like Rick Vaive and these other guys that have come before us,” Matthews said via NHL.com. “They have just kind of represented what it means to be a Toronto Maple Leaf. It means a lot and it’s extremely humbling.”
NHL Roundup: Maple Leafs 6, Lightning 2
League-leading goal scorer Auston Matthews netted his seventh career hat trick and tied Toronto’s season record for goals with 54, leading the Maple Leafs to a 6-2 win over the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.
Matthews scored twice in the second period and once in the third to match Rick Vaive’s goal-scoring mark from the 1981-82 season. Toronto’s Mitchell Marner had a goal and two assists to stretch his point streak to 10 games (six goals, 16 assists).
Matthews produced a four-point outing for the Maple Leafs, who won their fifth straight game and broke a tie with Tampa Bay for second place in the Atlantic Division.
Toronto’s Pierre Engvall and Alexander Kerfoot added scores, Michael Bunting had two assists and goalie Jack Campbell stopped 32 shots. Nikita Kucherov and Jan Rutta scored for the Lightning, who lost their second straight (0-1-1) and played their third game in four nights.
“We’re just blessed to have (Matthews) on this team,” said Campbell. “It’s crazy what he’s done.”
Bruins 3, Blue Jackets 2 (OT)
Jake DeBrusk scored his second goal of the game at 1:03 of overtime to lift visiting Boston to a win against Columbus.
DeBrusk scored from the bottom of the right circle off a feed from Hampus Lindholm. Charlie McAvoy extended his point streak to five games with two assists for the Bruins, who have won three straight and are 12-2-1 in their past 15 games. Boston’s Craig Smith also scored, and Linus Ullmark made 20 saves for the win.
Emil Bemstrom and Zach Werenski scored, Jakub Voracek had two assists and Elvis Merzlikins made 34 saves for the Blue Jackets, who are 0-4-3 in their past seven games.
Flames 3, Kings 2

Johnny Gaudreau scored twice in a three-point game to lead the visiting Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.
“Johnny was on fire tonight,” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. “He was awesome. He’s been really good lately, and hopefully that will get the line going.”
NHL.com
Elias Lindholm also scored for the Flames (41-19-9, 91 points), who snapped a three-game losing skid (0-2-1). First-place Calgary increased its lead over second-place Los Angeles in the Pacific Division to five points.
Goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves, standing tall while the Flames were short-handed for most of the final two minutes.
Adrian Kempe notched both goals on assists from Anze Kopitar for the Kings (38-24-10, 86 points). Cal Petersen stopped 30 shots.
Trailing 2-1 after the opening period, the Flames began their comeback with Lindholm’s marker at 13:03 of the middle frame. While the attention of the defenders was on Gaudreau as he had the puck behind the net, Lindholm found an opening in the slot and buried a one-timer for his 35th of the season.
Gaudreau notched his second of the night, and 34th of the campaign, 65 seconds later. Ryan Carpenter gained the puck on the forecheck and slipped a pass into the slot to Gaudreau, who neatly lifted a backhander to pot the game-winner.
Blues 5, Coyotes 1
Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and Ville Husso made 21 saves to power St. Louis past visiting Arizona.
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and two assists for the Blues, who have gone 4-0-1 in their past five games. Ivan Barbashev and Brayden Schenn also scored and David Perron and Robert Thomas each had two assists.
Nick Schmaltz scored and Ivan Prosvetov made 24 saves for the injury-depleted Coyotes, who are 2-7-1 in their past 10 games.
–Field Level Media contributed to this report