Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs

Knies has 3 goals and 2 assists, Marner adds goal and 4 assists as Maple Leafs beat Bruins 6-4

Auston Matthews had a goal and two assists in his return after missing six games with an undisclosed upper-body injury, and Jake McCabe had a goal and an assist for Toronto, which has won three straight and four of five. Joseph Woll had 26 saves to win his fourth straight start.

David Pastrnak had two goals, and Morgan Geekie and Trent Frederic also scored as Boston lost its third straight and fourth in its last five games. Jeremy Swayman finished with 23 saves.

Knies gave the Maple Leafs a 4-3 lead with his 14th of the season at 5:28 of the third period, beating Swayman after taking a feed from Matthews from behind the goal. After Marner’s empty-net goal, Pastrnak added his second to make it 5-4 with less than two minutes remaining. Mathews sealed it with an empty-netter with 31 seconds left.

Takeaways Bruins: Boston finished a winless three-game trip that also included losses at Washington and the New York Rangers.

Maple Leafs: The line of Knies, Matthews and Marner combined for 13 points on the night. ... Matthews has missed 15 of the team’s 40 games this season — also sitting out nine games in November — with Toronto going 10-5-0 without him.

Key moment McCabe’s goal, at 3:29 of the first period, was the first by a Maple Leafs defenseman since Nov. 30 when Chris Tanev scored in a 5-3 win over Tampa Bay. Coming into this game, Toronto forwards had scored 50 goals in 16 games since then.

Key stat Toronto opened the scoring for the fifth straight game and is 17-2-1 when scoring first this season.

Up Next Bruins host the New York Islanders on Sunday, and Maple Leafs host Philadelphia to open a home-and-home set.

TOR leads series 2-1