Scrappy Buds make it clear it’s their time to go on a win streak in the storied rivalry of the two Original Six teams.
Matthew Knies scored a hat trick, as the Toronto Maple Leafs (25-13-2) beat the Boston Bruins (20-17-4) by a score of 5-4 in Toronto on Saturday evening. This was the second consecutive victory for the Leafs over their division rivals, after an eight-game regular season win streak by their American counterparts.
Defenseman Jake McCabe drew first blood 3:29 into the first period, with a wrist shot from the left face-off zone off a feed from Mitch Marner, putting Toronto up 1-0. McCabe’s goal was the first by a defenseman for the Buds in 16 games, dating back to Dec. 1. Toronto making Boston uncomfortable was on clear display, as the Bruins had trouble setting up even a single shot in their first power play.
In the second period, the Leafs doubled their lead with a Knies tipped-in goal after being fed from Auston Matthews 3:37 into the period. The Bruins began asserting themselves from that point on, as Boston scored 12 seconds later, courtesy of a Morgan Geekie wrist shot. Towards the end of the period, Travis Frederic leveled the score with a shot from the slot. Unlike the first period, the Bruins outshot the Leafs 12-to-9 and had six shots from the slot, while the Leafs had just one.
In the final period, Knies gave the Leafs the 3-2 lead, with a highlight-reel-worthy spinning shot at the 3:43 mark. That was temporarily evened out less than a minute later by a David Pastrnak slap shot, as Knies fired his own slap shot into the Bruins net 5:28 into the third period to register his first career hat trick.
The Bruins tried to mount a comeback, including a Pastrnak goal, but a couple of empty-net goals by Toronto sealed the win for the home side.
The game marked the comeback of Leafs captain Matthews, who missed six games after reaggravating an upper-body injury on Dec. 20 that forced him to miss time in November.
Toronto went 3-3-0 in this stretch without their skipper.
The Bruins, meanwhile, are in unchartered territory. In the 40 games since the season began, they’ve had 20 wins (fewest since 2016-17), 2.58 goals per game (fewest since 2016-17), 2.82 goals against per game (highest since 2006-07), a power play percentage of 12.9 (lowest since 1967-68) and a penalty kill percentage of 75.8 (lowest since 1980-81).
The Bruins have now lost three in a row, and are now eight points behind the Buds in the Atlantic Division race. They travel back to Beantown to welcome the New York Islanders on Sunday evening, while the Leafs await the Philadelphia Flyers at home that same day.
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