Auston Matthews scores NHL-leading 50th, Maple Leafs beat Jets

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Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 50th goal of the season and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the 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."

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Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) chases the puck during first-period NHL hockey game action against the Winnipeg Jets in Toronto, Thursday, March 31, 2022. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

William Nylander had two power-play goals and an assist and Ilya Mikheyev scored short-handed and had a three-point game. Mark Giordano added a goal and an assist and John Tavares and Timothy Liljegren also scored Toronto, which got 20 saves from Erik Kallgren. Mitch Marner added three assists.

Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and an assist, Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastny also scored for Winnipeg. Eric Comrie stopped 31 shots.

"We need to win games," Ehlers said after Winnipeg blew an early 2-0 lead. "Besides playoffs, this is the toughest time of the year."

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