Matthews contributed five points to Washington’s defeat, Rittich picked off a Wild shooter and Kopitar broke the 1,200 NHL points mark

American cannonballer and the best scorer of the current season Auston Matthews made his presence felt again last night. He contributed five points to his team’s victory against the Capitals. Czech goalie David Rittich of the Los Angeles Kings kept his third clean sheet of the season and his teammate Anže Kopirar celebrated a big anniversary.

Auston Matthews was on a rampage for the Capitals

In the Washington Capitals vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (3:7), Auston Matthews contributed five points to the Maple Leafs’ victory. The competition’s top scorer scored two goals after a short drought and improved to 57 goals on the season, and there is still a realistic chance of hitting the 70-goal mark.

On top of that, he also recorded 3 assists. With this performance he equaled his career high in a single game. After 67 games played, he improved his record to 89 points and moved up to 8th in the Canadian scoring. Captain Alexander Ovechkin was also very visible for the home team, scoring two goals.

Ovechkin recorded his second consecutive two-goal game and is already up to 23 goals this season. In total, he already has 845 goals in the regular season, reducing the gap to the all-time leading scorer Wayne Gretzky to 49 goals.

Ovechkin’s 1,539th point in the regular season tied Joe Thornton for 13th in historical scoring. And in the second half of the season, the Russian has raced to 34 points in his last 32 games. Otherwise, the game was in full control of the visiting team.

In addition, Matthews set a club record as he has his 16th multi-goal game this season, breaking his own record from the 2021-22 season and Rick Vaive’s from the 1983-84 season, when both had 15 tallies in a given season.

David Rittich picked off Minnesota’s goal scorer

Czech goaltender David Rittich was outstanding in the Los Angeles Kings vs. Minnesota Wild (6: 0), catching all 31 shots of his opponent and notching his third clean sheet of the season and seventh of his career. Rittich spent the first half of the season on the farm and, as the saying goes, he grabbed the opportunity and has been a great catcher for the Kings. In 21 games, he’s picked up 11 wins and pushed his average to 2.17 goals per game.

Anže Kopitar surpassed the 1,200 point mark in the regular season

Captain Kopitar recorded a goal and an assist in this game, breaking the 1,200 point mark in the NHL, only the 58th player in history to do so. He is now at 1,201 points in 1,361 games played. And he’s just 15 assists away from surpassing another milestone of 80 regular season assists.

Source: NHL