OTTAWA — It didn’t take Auston Matthews long to live up to the hype.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft scored four goals in his first regular-season NHL game, in the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday’s season opener for both teams. He also became the first player to score four goals in his NHL debut.
William Nylander benefited from Matthews’s performance with two assists, while Frederik Andersen stopped 25 shots for the Leafs.
Bobby Ryan, Erik Karlsson, Derrick Brassard and Kyle Turris scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson made 34 saves.
Matthews opened the scoring at the 8:21 mark of the first period, standing in front of Senators goalie Anderson as rookie linemate Zach Hyman centred the puck from behind the net. Matthews swatted at the pass, giving Toronto a 1-0 lead on his first shot of the game.
Ottawa tied the game midway through the period as Ryan picked up Karlsson’s rebound and backhanded it past Andersen. Two minutes later, Karlsson gave the Senators a 2-1, lead scoring from the blue line.
For his second goal, Matthews showed off his flashy puck-handling skills. He stripped Ottawa right-winger Mark Stone of the puck near the Senators’ blue line, then dangled the puck in and around the rest of the defence before putting it over Anderson’s shoulder.
The-19-year-old Matthews completed a hat trick just 1:25 into the second period, taking a cross-ice feed from Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly as the Toronto veteran charged toward the goal line, putting a light one-timer past Anderson.
Despite a bipartisan crowd of 17,618 on hand at Canadian Tire Centre hats came raining down and Matthews’ mother, Ema, was spotted with tears in her eyes.
Brassard, an Ottawa native acquired in the off-season for Mika Zibanejad, tied the game, 3-3, as he muscled his way to the net and beat Andersen short side.
Matthews added a fourth goal in the final seconds of the second period, taking a pass from William Nylander on a 2-on-1 opportunity. Matthews is the fifth player in NHL history to score a hat trick in his regular-season debut and the first in Maple Leafs history.
Turris had his second goal of the night 37 seconds into overtime to hand the host Senators the victory.
The 19-year-old from Scottsdale, Arizona, is the 12th first overall pick to score in his NHL debut.
Matthews was the fifth player with three goals in his NHL debut since 1943-44 and first since Derek Stepan with the New York Rangers in October 2010. Alex Smart (Montreal, 1943), Real Cloutier (Quebec, 1979) and Fabian Brunnstrom (Dallas, 2008) also had hat tricks in their first NHL games, though Cloutier played five seasons with the Nordiques in the WHA before that.
Notes: D Thomas Chabot and LW Matt Puempel were a healthy scratch for the Senators. Toronto D Frank Corrado and Roman Polak as well as C Seth Griffith were a healthy scratch.
