Toronto did match their season-high sixth straight game with at least a point
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After the Maple Leafs watched Auston Matthews rise to scoring history, it was Matthew Schaefer’s turn in the spotlight.
The 18-year-old New York Islanders defenceman wundkerkind won Saturday’s game 4-3 in overtime after he’d scored earlier in the third on a goal eerily similar to Matthews’ first of the night.
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Once Matthews potted two nice goals to pass Mats Sundin for top spot in the 108-year-old club’s annals, the second emptying the bench, Toronto couldn’t subdue the home team or get the vital extra point in the wild-card race.
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Schaefer, now with 12 goals, bolted past three Leafs as he, and then Emil Heineman with 2:45 left in regulation time, sandwiched third-period goals around Nick Robertson’s go-ahead marker to force OT.
Schaefer, like Matthews, is a first overall draft pick.
Matthews’ goals in the second period on ex-teammate David Rittich hardly allowed the Leafs to sit back, though Bobby McMann, with the Leafs captain lurking nearby, nearly won it in the extra period when his shot hit the post and trickled along the goalline behind Rittich.
The scoreless game spiced up when John Tavares’ faceoff prowess deserted him early in the second period. Still hearing boos from his 2018 decision to leave the Island for the Leafs, Tavares was beaten by Jonathan Drouin and Adam Pelech sifted a shot through Joseph Woll.
The Leafs did match their season-high sixth straight game with a point or two, sticking with Woll as starter despite his four goals on 18 shots against Winnipeg when Dennis Hildeby was brought in.
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On defence, Matt Benning, who’d not played an NHL game in more than a calendar year after arriving from San Jose, was partnered with Simon Benoit as Philippe Myers took a seat on defence. Benning was in the Timothy Liljegren trade in October of 2024, spending the ensuing time with the AHL Marlies and starting on the farm again this year.
The 31-year-old, with 464 NHL games of experience, has tried to stay patient as other defencemen were promoted to the Leafs ahead of him.
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“It’s exciting, I worked pretty hard to get back here,” Benning told the Toronto Sun earlier this week. “It’s the first experience for me spending that amount of time down in the American League but I got some confidence, played a lot of minutes and found my game again.
“When the opportunity comes, I’ll be excited, ready and very appreciative of it.”
Benning linked a 40-year gap in family history from when his uncle Jim was on Toronto’s blueline.
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