Toronto Maple Leafs Goaltender Ilya Samsonov Reaches Milestone

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Florida Panthers 6-4 on Monday night in a game that featured two milestones.

The first milestone came when Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews scored his 61st and 62nd goals of the season. With a personal best of 60 goals during the 2021-22 season, Matthews has set a new career high with his two goals against the Panthers.

The Leafs have eight games remaining for Matthews to extend his goal total. He is on pace for 69 goals.

The Toronto Maple Leafs second milestone came when the final buzzer sounded securing the Leafs victory. Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov recorded his 100th career win. He has 52 career wins with the Washington Capitals and 48 with the Leafs. He became the 16th fastest goaltender to reach 100 wins by doing it in 167 games. Samsonov's overall record is 100-38-20.
(All stats from hockey-reference.com)

Toronto Maple Leafs Goaltender Ilya Samsonov Reaches Milestone

Samsonov had a rough start to the 2023-24 season but bounced back after some time with the Toronto Marlies on a mental health conditioning stint.

A strong start could have helped him reach this milestone sooner, but being the 16th fastest to 100 wins is still impressive. Playing for good teams helps and Samsonov has been lucky in that regard. Since returning to the Leafs from his conditioning stint, Samsonov has a record of 16-4-1 in 21 games.

Samsonov is riding a three-game winning streak, so hopefully, his hot streak will continue until the end of the regular season and into the playoffs. Despite a struggling power play, the Leafs have been playing well recently.

They are close to clinching their playoff spot and have some very important games in their schedule coming up soon. None is more important than Wednesday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Samsonov and the Leafs need to stay ahead of the Lightning in the playoff standings. A win over the Lightning in regulation on Wednesday would put us eight points ahead of the Lightning in the standings.

The Leafs are also starting to creep up on the Florida Panthers for 2nd in the Atlantic Division, which would secure home-ice advantage in round one. The Panthers are four points ahead of the Leafs, with the Leafs holding one game in hand.

The Leafs final two games of the season will be back-to-back games against the Panthers (April 16th) and the Lightning (April 17th). Those two games could have huge playoff implications.