Tough start for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 3 against the Washington Capitals on Monday night when they allowed two goals on the first two shots they faced (Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin did the damage) in the game’s first five minutes.
But they started to get back into it later in the period and cut the deficit in half thanks to Auston Matthews, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft, scoring his first career playoff goal. He has a fortunate bounce off of Nate Schmidt’s head, leaving the puck right on the doorstep for an easy tap-in, to thank for it.
You can see the entire play in the video above.
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Schmidt was playing on Monday due to an upper body injury to veteran defenseman Karl Alzner and he ended up playing a pretty big role in the first period. Not only because of this play, but he also set up the Capitals’ first goal when he made a beautiful play to set up Backstrom in front.
With 40 goals during the regular season, Matthews put together one of the best rookie seasons the NHL has seen in years and was not only the top rookie goal-scorer in the league, he ended up as the second leading goal-scorer in the entire league, trailing only Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby.