Have a night, Matthew Knies.
As in, your best game in the National Hockey League.
In a fast-paced game that created more buzz than we’ve seen in a while at Scotiabank Arena, the Maple Leafs winger recorded his first NHL hat trick and had a career-high five points, driving Toronto to a 6-4 win against the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.
Earlier in the day, Bruins captain Brad Marchand referred to the Leafs as the Bruins’ biggest rival. With Leafs captain Auston Matthews back in the lineup after he missed six games with an upper-body injury, the Atlantic Division foes lived up to the billing.
Leafs coach Craig Berube inserted Matthews into familiar territory between Knies and Mitch Marner, and the trio shone, combining for 13 points, with Marner contributing an empty-net goal and four assists. Matthews had a goal and two assists.
Marner’s goal was the winner, as David Pastrnak scored with less than two minutes remaining and goalie Jeremy Swayman on the bench.
With 31 seconds left, Matthews dived to send the puck into an empty Bruins net.
Knies’ third goal came at 5:28 of the third period when he snapped a Matthews pass behind Swayman.
That came just over a minute after Pastrnak tied the game upon picking John Tavares’ pocked in the Leafs’ end.
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Knies, who was flying all night and also assisted on Marner’s goal, had given the Leafs a 3-2 lead at 3:43 with a spin-around, no-look move that fooled Swayman and brought the crowd to its feet.
Joseph Woll again was solid and made 26 saves in the Leafs net.
A goal late in the second period by Bruins centre Trent Frederic, a childhood friend of Woll in St. Louis, tied the game 2-2 going into the intermission.
Frederic beat Max Domi on the defensive-zone draw and then took a pass from Charlie McAvoy before beating Woll on the stick side at 18:44.
Knies put the Leafs up 2-0 at 3:37 of the second when he deftly redirected a Matthews shot past Swayman. It was Knies’ first goal in 10 games and came after Marner forced McAvoy into making a turnover.
The Bruins responded quickly, as Morgan Geekie put a loose puck into an open net 12 seconds after Knies’ goal.
The Leafs’ first goal of the game came from a rare source — Jake McCabe. The veteran defenceman had not scored since April 8 last season, but got his first in 38 games when he snapped a shot past Swayman on the short side at 3:39 of the first period.
It was just the eighth goal by a Leafs defenceman this season, tying them for fewest in the NHL with Ottawa. As well, it was the first goal by a Toronto D-man since Chris Tanev scored against Tampa Bay on Nov. 30.