from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,

Away from the fire, the relationship between Auston Matthews and Patrick Kane resembles a mutual admiration society.

Matthews scoured Kane’s highlights on YouTube as a kid and counts him as one of his favourite NHL players. They now spend a few days together doing skills work with Darryl Belfry each summer. And of those sessions with Matthews, Kane recently gushed: "Sometimes you skate with players that are so far ahead of the players skill-wise it makes you push yourself a little bit more, too, so I’m excited to be around him."

The dynamic shifts inside the cauldron of competition. These are transcendent players capable of elevating moments beyond their circumstances. They both want to be the absolute best, beyond question, and there can only be one skater with the crown.

So it was on this unlikeliest of shared stages – the third game of the NHL’s regular season, on sleepy Thanksgiving Sunday – that Kane and Matthews produced a flash of hockey happenstance so bright it left you wondering if you saw it correctly.

Once Kane scored to make it 5-5 between Toronto and Chicago with 1:24 to play in regulation, Matthews restored the lead 22 seconds later. The puck was on his stick for a nanosecond and he celebrated his fourth point of the night by cupping his left hand to his ear inside a deflated United Center.

Then Kane brought back the roar by tying it 33 seconds later, celebrating his skipping shot through traffic with a wry smile and the exact same "can you hear it?" meme he’d seen from Matthews.

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Below, watch the game highlight's of Toronto's 7-6 OT win over Chicago plus the Kane and Matthews goals...