Auston Matthews’ Backhand Beauty & No Look Apple in NJEC

The United States’ National Junior Evaluation Camp came to an end on Saturday with the U.S. playing their final scrimmage, this time a re-match against Finland, in which they took home a 6-1 win.

Among the highlights of the game were 17-year-old Auston Matthews (2016 draft eligible) weaving through the entire Finnish squad to score a backhanded beauty past Finnish goaltender Veini Vehvilainen (2015 draft eligible, undrafted) under a minute into the game. (In the GIF below, note that they hadn’t even started the clock on the broadcast.)

That wasn’t the only Matthews highlight of the day though. The soon-to-be Zurich Lion forward had two assists in the game, one of which was an absolutely gorgeous behind-the-back no-look pass that hit Matthew Tkachuk (2016 draft eligible) on the tape for the goal.

You can glimpse that, as well as a pair of goals by Anders Bjork, and a goal each from Jeremy Bracco (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Brock Boeser (Vancouver Canucks) in the complete game highlights below.

Tkachuk wound up leading the U.S. in goals (5) and points (8) through six scrimmages at camp. Boeser and Bjork came in second in goals with four each, Scott Eansor (2015 draft eligible, undrafted) lead in assists with five and came in second in points with seven. Boeser finished third in points with six.

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