Knies happy to beat Bruins: 'These guys have had us for a little bit'

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 4-0 on Tuesday night to end an eight-game losing streak in the regular season against their heated rivals, and forward Matthew Knies is happy to see that skid come to an end.

"These guys have had us for a little bit now, so I think we were all a little bit frustrated in here," he said, per TSN's Mark Masters. "We wanted to play physical and get on them."

The last time the Leafs bested the Bruins in the regular season was exactly two years ago on Nov. 5, 2022. Knies was still playing for the University of Minnesota at the time.

Boston and Toronto also met in the opening round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when the former won in seven games.

The Maple Leafs pulled off Tuesday's victory without captain Auston Matthews, who is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Toronto improved to 36-19-2 all-time without the premium sniper in the lineup, according to Sportsnet Stats.

"It sucks losing (Matthews), but everyone stepped up," Knies said, per SDPN Sports' Jesse Blake.

Key to the Leafs' win was the revival of their power play, which entered the contest ranked 31st in the league with a 10% success rate. Toronto burned the Bruins with three goals on the man advantage on seven opportunities.

Despite the breakthrough, defenseman Morgan Rielly - who scored his team's first power-play marker of the game - is keeping a level head.

"I don't think we're going to get carried away thinking we got anything solved," he said, according to The Hockey News' David Alter. "I think it was just a matter of time, just about sticking with the process. We wanted to shoot more pucks, we wanted to get more traffic, and I thought we did those things.

"But by all means we don't have everything all sorted out. It's going to be a work in progress, but obviously tonight it played a big role."

The Bruins, meanwhile, went 0-for-6 on the power play and fell to 6-7-1 on the season.

"Sooner or later, it's gonna go our way. ... Their PP won them their game, so it's frustrating when our PP can't win a game for us," Boston forward Elias Lindholm told reporters postgame.

Beantown couldn't solve Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who made 29 saves to secure the shutout. Stolarz was also in net for Toronto's 4-3 overtime loss to the Bruins in late October.

"This was probably our most complete game of the year," the veteran said, according to Masters. "We knew they were going to try and grind us down, and we matched their intensity, matched their physicality really well."

The Leafs currently sit in second place of the Atlantic Division with a 7-5-2 record and .571 points percentage. They will square off against Boston again on Jan. 4.