The 19-year-old Leafs phenom also moved ahead of teammate Mitch Marner and into sole possession of second place on the NHL's rookie points list with 56.
The Washington Capitals haven't had to sweat much in their quest to secure the NHL's top seed, but the Columbus Blue Jackets are cranking up the thermostat down the stretch.
Cam Atkinson's overtime-winner Saturday gave the Blue Jackets their third straight victory and sixth win in their last seven games. It also drew them even with the Capitals for top spot in the Metropolitan Division, the Eastern Conference, and the league as a whole, albeit with an asterisk.
#CBJ are tied with Capitals in points (98) and regulation/overtime wins (44), but #Caps technically in first place because of head-to-head.
Both teams have 12 games remaining on their regular-season schedules, and both will play five at home and seven on the road, but the Capitals have an easier road to the preliminary hardware.
Washington will close out the regular season with a pair of home-road back-to-backs, but they play the lowly Arizona Coyotes twice and the league-worst Colorado Avalanche once beforehand.
The Blue Jackets close out a back-to-back Sunday, then have to play three more before the postseason begins, so six of their final 11 games will be parts of back-to-back clusters.
Columbus will face Washington twice and battle the Chicago Blackhawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road before season's end, while the Capitals only have two major tests the rest of the way with a road game against the Minnesota Wild and a home date with the New York Rangers.
Still, the two division rivals are headed in opposite directions at the moment. While the Blue Jackets have reeled off seven wins in their last 10 games, the Capitals have lost five of their last six.
The chase for the league's No. 1 spot could be decided April 2, when the Capitals host the Blue Jackets in their final pre-playoff meeting. However, considering the way both clubs have been playing, it might not be decided until the final day of the regular season.
After a sluggish start to the season, the Anaheim Ducks goaltender became the starter in February when John Gibson was lost to a lower-body injury.
Bernier has excelled with the busier workload. He's undefeated in regulation over his five starts since March 7, and no netminder has performed better than Bernier over his last five games:
Goalie
Record
GAA
SV%
Jonathan Bernier
4-0-1
1.36
.955
Calvin Pickard
3-2-0
1.81
.939
Frederik Andersen
4-1-0
2.06
.936
Cam Talbot
2-2-1
2.38
.922
Bernier chalks up his improved performance to his increased usage.
"I think when you play a lot, you just see the play before it happens, and the game just seems a lot easier," Bernier told Curtis Zupke of the Los Angeles Times. "You don't think, you just execute, and that's what happens when you start playing a lot more.
"Then you build confidence off those games, and by playing more, you feel confidence in yourself and your abilities to makes those saves."
Bernier's appeared in 31 games in his first season with the Ducks, putting together a 13-7-3 record with a .915 save rate. His recent showing has pushed Anaheim to second in the Pacific, just six points back of the division lead.
Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle is also confident that Bernier can hold down the fort while Gibson inches closer to a clean bill of health.
"The way Bernie's played - Bernie's earned that opportunity and he's given us real solid goaltending here over the last little while," Carlyle said. "Right now, why would you look in any other direction?"
Even if you have your eyes on the puck, freak accidents can happen.
A fan found that out the hard way at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Saturday, when Colorado Avalanche defenseman Francois Beauchemin's attempt to clear the puck went through the small hole in the glass designated for photographers.
Beauchemin immediately went to the bench and sent a towel over the boards to help out the fan, who appeared to avoid serious injury. The veteran blue-liner also gave his accidental victim a souvenir.
“That was very classy of him, and I thank him very much.”
- Wings fan Dave—that was hit with the puck—on Beauchemin sending a stick over.
Maybe Tomas Tatar just really wanted to hit that 20-goal mark.
That certainly seems to be the case, as the Detroit Red Wings winger wasted no time in netting the two tallies needed to reach the 20-goal plateau on Saturday, potting back-to-back scores against the Colorado Avalanche in a span of 1:36.
First came the above finish off of a feed from Luke Glendening, which gave Detroit a 2-1 lead early in the third period. Tatar broke in for another soon after, opening up a two-goal lead against the ever-stumbling Avalanche.
Ahead of the Saturday-night tilt that will see the two pivots line up across from each other at center ice, Toews dished on what he's seen from the 2016 No.1 pick's rookie effort.
"You compare (Matthews) to guys like Malkin and even Kane, the way he handles the puck with his feet moving," Toews told TSN. "For a guy that size, it's not that easy."
High praise, to say the least, given the fact that Evgeni Malkin and Patrick Kane have combined for five Stanley Cups, two Hart trophies, and three scoring titles thus far, among a slew of other awards.
Matthews has a long way to go before he's truly in the same conversation as those two stars, but Toews believes the potential is clearly there.
"You knew he had the talent but sometimes it's a matter of time before it translates to the NHL, and he's wasted no time," Toews said.
"You wonder, if that’s how he comes out of the gate, what’s he going to be like in a couple years from now?"
Matthews has racked up 31 goals and 55 points through 69 games this season, both marks ranking second among all rookies behind 2016 No. 2 pick Patrik Laine.
In case you missed it, Rasmus Ristolainen netted an extra point for the Buffalo Sabres on Friday with a version of the breakaway move many associate with the great Peter Forsberg.
The move seemed to come out of nowhere for the simple fact that rangy defenders like Ristolainen commonly lack that sort of expert coordination. And besides, it was the first shootout attempt of his career.
But what's interesting, it was precisely the move that those privy to his training would have expected. Ristolainen apparently promised at a skate last summer that he would try the move when he finally got his shot in the shootout.
Andersen's custom green-and-white mask features an image of the legendary coach and general manager, nicknamed "The Big Irishman," painted on the side.
Some close-ups of the mask Frederik Andersen will wear on Saturday for the Leafs St. Pats game ☘️ pic.twitter.com/XKDZoD9Y7x
The Washington Capitals head coach, who has seen his team's lead atop the Eastern Conference cut to one point, categorized Saturday's matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning as an "absolute must win," according to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.
There was concern the Capitals would potentially struggle with motivation after a disappointing second-round exit following their dominant President's Trophy campaign last season. That hasn't necessarily been the case, but they have hit the skids over their last 10 games, winning just four.
Trotz called their play over this stretch "unacceptable."
Conversely, the Lightning have played very well of late. The Toronto Maple Leafs currently occupy the second wild-card position, one point up on the Lightning and New York Islanders.
After dominating the league for much of 2016-17, the Minnesota Wild have come back to Earth.
The club still ranks second in the Central Division - in little danger of losing that position - but it's clear something has changed for the former league leader.
Minnesota has earned just 10 points in the past month, tied for fourth-least in the league, after netting a league-leading 21 points one month prior. Previously the toast of the town with their 12-game win streak in tow, the Wild have now lost six of their past eight.
Charlie Coyle hasn't helped matters, as the fourth-year winger's season has taken a similar trajectory - indomitable at first, decidedly mediocre as of late.
Coyle tore through the first three months of 2016-17, getting on the board at nearly a point-per-game pace initially:
Coyle
GP
G
A
P
October-November-December
36
12
18
30
But since the calendar turned to 2017, things haven't gone quite as smoothly. Coyle's overall production has been nearly halved since Jan. 1st, while his goal-scoring has fallen off a cliff:
Coyle
GP
G
A
P
January-February-March
33
3
13
16
The 25-year-old has just one tally in his past 14 games, and just two in his past 31 appearances. He still has a career-high 46 points in the bag this season, but after starting the year off on track for his first 30-goal effort, Coyle now looks unlikely to even match last year's mark of 21.
He's sitting at 15 goals at the moment, having barely moved the needle since December.
Needless to say, the timing couldn't be worse for Minnesota. The Wild have just 13 games remaining on the schedule, their formerly unstoppable offense drying up as they prepare for the postseason.
Mikael Granlund, Minnesota's leading scorer, has yet to slow in his ascent towards league-wide stardom, and the Wild still have 2016-17's best netminder in Devan Dubnyk.
But the driving force behind the team's exceptional season thus far has been their depth.
The recent drop in secondary scoring has clearly impacted the Wild's ability to claim victory, with wins drying up as Coyle and a few others - Nino Niederreiter similarly has one goal through his past 14 games - continue to come up short.
All hasn't been lost just yet, as Minnesota still has the tools to make waves come playoff time. But if Coyle and Co. can't right the ship before the postseason begins, the Wild will head to the dance without what might be their greatest strength - the dominant depth that has carried them all season long.