What else would we talk about this morning but Auston Matthews scoring his 60th goal of the season last night?

First, the goal.

The celebration.

A little kid got the lucky stick.

And Carlton got a big hug.

Here’s our live recap of the game if you want to relive it all, which by the way, included Jack Campbell getting a shutout.

Leafs clinch 2nd in the Atlantic with a win over the Red Wings

Marlies make final push to get to the playoffs tonight

Omar was busy yesterday and also put together a playoffs preview mailbag, including his thoughts on how Ilya Mikheyev fits in to the plan.

The Leafs final game of the season is Friday against the Bruins.

The Marlies start critical back-to-back games against the Rocket tonight. They sit in a playoff spot as of now, but losses here could move them back out of it, since the AHL is ranking teams not by raw standings points, but by points%. The games tonight and tomorrow are both in Laval and start at 7:00 p.m..

Other News

The drama in the west continues after last night’s game between the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights. While the Stars won, it was in a shootout, gifting Golden Knights one standings point, which was just enough to keep the Stars from clinching and the Golden Knights’ playoff hopes alive a little longer. Both teams have two games remaining, so Vegas’ hopes rely on winning both games and Dallas losing both games, otherwise the Western Conference playoff teams are now set.

The Nashville Predators finally clinched last night with a point earned on an OT loss. The game went to OT only because the Flames scored with literally 0.1 seconds left on the clock.

From The Branches