Auston Matthews’s four-goal explosion in his very first game was the most impressive showing by a rookie so far this season, but he’s not the only precocious youngster scoring bundles of goals. Finnish winger Patrik Laine was picked by the Jets right behind Matthews, and the two hockey teens met tonight in Winnipeg.
Matthews had a second-period assist for the Maple Leafs, and he helped them to a 4-0 lead. But the Jets didn’t give up, and after getting one back in the second, Laine got on the board very early in the third with a nifty shot off the pivot.
After the Jets scored it again to make it a one-goal game, Jets fans started chanting “Laine is better!”, and he scored a power-play goal within a minute of the end of the game to force overtime. In OT, Matthews got clear and had a chance to get the winner. His shot was saved, and Laine sped down the other way and immediately sent the overtime hat-trick winner into the net.
Both Mathews’s four-goal game and Laine’s hat trick game-winner were cool as hell, and I hope these two teen wizards keep doing cool hockey shit and form a transprovincial rivalry.