Knies has hat trick, 5 points, Maple Leafs hold off Bruins

TORONTO -- Matthew Knies scored his first NHL hat trick and had two assists for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 6-4 win against the Boston Bruins at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

“It felt incredible,” Knies said. “I felt the luck back on my side and that was a good game, a good overall effort from all of us in here. It was a good game.”

Auston Matthews scored and had two assists in his return from a six-game absence because of an upper-body injury and Mitch Marner had a goal and four assists for the Maple Leafs (25-13-2), who have won three in a row and are 4-1-0 in their past five. Joseph Woll made 27 saves.

“We knew it was going to be a tough, physical game going into it,” Matthews said. "Obviously it took 60 minutes, so happy I think with the performance tonight from everybody just staying with it and bearing down. I felt good, my linemates made it pretty easy for me tonight too. The chemistry was there. I thought we were working all three zones pretty good and finding each other in good spots.”

David Pastrnak scored twice and Jeremy Swayman made 23 saves for the Bruins (20-17-4), who have lost three in a row.

“We didn’t do a good enough job tonight,” Boston coach Joe Sacco said. “We were not hard enough in certain areas of the game tonight. Give Toronto credit, they played hard especially below the tops of the circles. We knew that going into the game that it was going to be like that and we just have to be harder to play against, especially down low.”

Jake McCabe put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 at 3:29 of the first period when he took a pass from Marner and shot over Swayman’s blocker from the left hashmarks. It was the first goal from a Maple Leafs defenseman since Chris Tanev scored on Nov. 30 in a 5-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, ending a 16-game goal drought from Toronto defensemen. They had scored 54 consecutive goals by forwards.

“We’re not worried about scoring goals on the back end, we’re worried about winning hockey games and that’s keeping the puck out of our net,” McCabe said. “You keep the goals against down in this League and we’ve got enough guys in this room who can score. It’s nice to contribute when we do but that’s not our priority.”

Knies pushed it to 2-0 at 3:37 of the second period when he deflected a shot in the slot from Matthews, who was at the side boards, ending a nine-game goal drought and a five-game point drought.

“I’m happy for him, he played awesome and got rewarded for just a great game all around at both ends of the ice,” Matthews said. “I think tonight he showed the potential he has and he is just going to continue to get better.”

Morgan Geekie responded 12 seconds later to cut it to 2-1 when he put in a loose puck off a rebound at the side of the net.

Trent Frederic tied it 2-2 at 18:44 when he took a pass from Charlie McAvoy and shot past Woll’s blocker from the slot. The goal ended his 11-game goal and point drought.

The Maple Leafs went up 3-2 at 3:43 of the third period when Knies jumped around Brandon Carlo in the slot and put a spinning backhand past Swayman’s outstretched left pad.

“It’s difficult in this League to play catch-up hockey but it’s 2-2 going into the third and we have two mistakes that they capitalize on, two breakdowns they capitalize on,” Sacco said. “One we get beat and the other we lose our slot coverage.”

Pastrnak tied it 3-3 just 34 seconds later when he stole the puck from John Tavares just inside the blueline and shot from the slot.

Knies completed the hat trick at 5:28 to put the Maple Leafs up 4-3 when he one-timed a pass in the slot from Matthews, who stole the puck behind the net from McAvoy.

“It felt like a playoff game today with the physicality and the back and forth play,” Knies said. “Give them props, they played a heck of a game, they’re a good team over there. I think we capitalized on our chances today.”

Marner shot into an empty net at 17:55 to make it 5-3 but Pastrnak cut it to 5-4 at 18:10 when he put in a pass from Pavel Zacha at the side of the net.

Pastrnak said poor defensive zone coverage cost them throughout the game.

“Too easy, too many easy goals we gave up,” Pastrnak said. “I know two were empty netters but overall too easy the goals they scored. We didn’t do much to prevent.”

Matthews outraced Pastrnak and dove to poke a loose puck into an empty net at 19:29 for the 6-4 final.

“What I was impressed about was that we were up and then we were tied but our momentum stayed and our game stayed the same,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “It wasn’t like oh wow they tied it up and now we’re going to try some trick plays or whatever you want to call it. We just stayed with our game.”

NOTES: Marner had a five-point game for the fifth time in his career and tied Babe Dye for the second most in franchise history, trailing Darryl Sittler at seven… Knies had a game-high six shots and finished plus-6… Matthews was plus-5 with five shots in 17:32. ... Pastrnak tied Brad Marchand for the fourth most multigoal games in franchise history with 65. Since Pastrnak made his debut in 2014-15, only Alex Ovechkin (92) and Matthews (78) have more multigoal games.