Maple Leafs’ Knies Scores Hat Trick in 6-4 Win Over Bruins – The Hockey Writers Toronto Maple Leafs Latest News, Analysis & More

Staying perfect in the 2025 calendar year, the Toronto Maple Leafs (26-13-2) outscored the Boston Bruins (20-18-4) in a high-scoring battle, 6-4 the final score. Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies was the shining star in this one, scoring his first career hat trick along with two assists for a five-point night.

The first period was closely contested as both teams came out firing in the opening minutes. Boston rang the post on an early chance while Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll made some strong saves. Less than four minutes into the game, Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe ripped a blistering wrist shot that beat Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman up high, putting Toronto ahead 1-0. The goal was McCabe’s first of the season while Mitch Marner and Chris Tanev picked up assists on the play.

Boston had a few chances in the frame to equalize the score, including a power play on a Knies penalty, but the struggling Bruins man advantage continued to haunt them as failure to generate any chances kept them off the scoresheet and the two teams entered the first intermission with a 1-0 Toronto lead.

The action picked up quite a bit in the second period, as again, less than five minutes in, the Leafs would strike. A dump-in by Toronto that was poorly received by Charlie McAvoy behind the Leafs’ net led to a turnover right to Auston Matthews. Matthews’ quick shot was tipped in by Knies for his 12th of the campaign, with assists going to Matthews and Marner.

Only 12 seconds later, however, heavy forechecking pressure from Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie and Charlie Coyle led to a Toronto turnover of their own behind the Boston net, eventually leading to Geekie burying his ninth goal of the season to bring Boston right back within a goal. Scoring slowed down for most of the period from this point on, but the chances continued. With about five minutes to go, William Nylander took a penalty, giving the Bruins a chance to tie the game. Unfortunately for Boston, that lasted a whole 20 seconds as Elias Lindholm took a penalty of his own to make it 4-on-4 for 1:40.

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Right at the close of the second period, with less than two minutes remaining, Trent Frederic finally broke free and put up his first point since early December, scoring the tying goal right in the slot. Frederic’s sixth goal of the season came at a pivotal time as the game was locked at two going into the final regulation period.

Keeping the trend going, Toronto scored early on in the period yet again as Knies put on a terrific solo effort to dance around Brandon Carlo before scoring the spinning backhand for a highlight-reel goal, giving the Maple Leafs another two-goal lead. Once again, that didn’t last long as half a minute later, David Pastrnak stripped the puck off of John Tavares before firing a wrister past Woll. Knies would once again answer quickly, around a minute-and-a-half to be exact on a nice passing play with Matthews to score the eventual game-winning goal.

MATTHEW. KNIES. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!! pic.twitter.com/0i0tu73Ts8

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) January 5, 2025

Mitch Marner buried the first of two empty-net goals, followed by Pastrnak’s second of the game to give the Bruins a little hope of a comeback, but a Matthews empty-netter sealed the deal, securing Toronto’s second win of 2025 and second win over Boston this season. Woll finished the game with 27 saves on 31 shots while Swayman stopped 23 of the 27 shots he faced. Marner and Knies each had five-point games for Toronto, while Zacha and Pastrnak had two-point outings for Boston.

Looking ahead for the Maple Leafs, they’ll have a matchup on Sunday (Jan. 5) at home against the Philadelphia Flyers while Boston is also playing in a back-to-back as they’re back at home, hosting the New York Islanders.