Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews scored to end a 12-game goal drought before leaving the game at 15:47 of the second period after taking a knee-on-knee hit in the slot from Ducks captain Radko Gudas, who was assessed a major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct. Matthews, who tried to sidestep the hit from Gudas, remained on the ice for about a minute and left with the help of a trainer and teammate Brandon Carlo, putting minimal weight on his left leg.
William Nylander scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, and Matias Maccelli had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs (28-27-11), who were 0-6-2 in their past eight games. It was their first home win since Jan. 10, having also gone 0-6-2 in their past eight home games. Joseph Woll made 36 saves.
Cutter Gauthier, Ian Moore and Pavel Mintyukov scored for the Ducks (36-26-3), who had won eight of their past 10 and 15 of 19. Lukas Dostal made 22 saves.
Matthews cut it to 3-2 at 10:47 on the power play after one-timing a pass from Knies at the right face-off dot.
John Tavares tied it 3-3 on the power play at 16:26 after Gudas’ major penalty. He jammed in a rebound at the top of the goal crease after Maccelli swung a shot towards the net from the bottom of the right face-off circle.
Nylander’s power-play goal then gave the Maple Leafs a 4-3 lead 36 seconds into the third for Toronto’s second goal with the man-advantage following Gudas’ penalty. After Knies’ shot was partially blocked by Jackson LaCombe, Nylander corralled the puck with his skate at the side of the goal crease and shot past a sprawling Dostal.
Bo Groulx scored short-handed to extend it to 5-3 at 8:35, skating on to a flip pass from Brandon Carlo and shooting low glove from the left hash marks. It was his second NHL goal and first since an empty-net goal on Nov. 7, 2021, when he was with the Ducks.
Knies shot into an empty net at 18:12 to make it 6-3, before Alex Killorn scored from the slot at 19:34 for the 6-4 final.
Maccelli gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead at 7:19 of the first period. He stole the puck from LaCombe at the Toronto blueline, carried it through the neutral zone and shot low blocker from the top of the right circle.
Gauthier tied it 1-1 at 12:19 when he put in a rebound off the end boards from LaCombe’s shot from the blue line.
Moore put Anaheim up 2-1 at 14:26 off a pass from Tim Washe, who was behind the net, on a shot from the slot.
Mintyukov pushed it to 3-1 at 2:55 of the second period when he took a shot pass from Ryan Poehling in the slot and scored over Woll’s blocker from just inside the left dot.
