Maple Leafs shine on special teams, surge past Ducks to end 8-game skid

TORONTO -- Matthew Knies had a goal and three assists for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who scored four straight goals on special teams and ended an eight-game losing streak by rallying for a 6-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

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.

“I love that we stayed composed and didn’t really get away from the game and found a way to win the game, and still kind of fight and push and not get thrown around,” Knies said. “You know the player (Gudas), I feel like he’s done that quite often. … That’s our best player going down.”

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.

“It shows that you need passion, emotion in the game to be successful, it really does,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We all know that. They played with passion and emotion in the third period.”

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.

“That was the turning point, but before that, we had some great opportunities and we were looking for a better play,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. “We gave up quality, then they got some momentum and it was a tough penalty, it was a penalty, I’m not complaining about the call, there was no premeditation. Reflexes did it.

“It’s a disappointing loss because we were trying to build off last game and we did it perfectly for the first period and a half. We had basically a game and a half where we were doing everything right, we had possession, momentum and pace.”

Matthews scored on the power play to cut it to 3-2 at 10:47 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 circle.

Toronto scored a third consecutive power-play goal when Nylander gave the Maple Leafs a 4-3 lead 36 seconds into the third period, Toronto’s second with the man-advantage after 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.

“We knew we had to respond and that’s what we did,” Nylander said.

Bo Groulx scored short-handed to extend it to 5-3 at 8:35, skating on to a flip pass from 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.

“We just responded to what the game required,” Tavares said. “Emotions got high and I think we responded really well with the way we came back and certainly the way we came out and initiated play and just did what we had to do to give ourselves a good lead, put ourselves in a good spot and continue to be hard on our opponent.”

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.

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.

“We had the lead, got into some penalty troubles, our PK wasn’t good tonight. And I think that’s kind of what cost us in the long run, so got to be better there,” Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “Can’t give them those opportunities.

“They have some high skilled players that will make you pay and they did tonight. Their guys made good plays on the power play, and a lot of times outmuscled us in front of our net, and we can’t let that happen.”

NOTES: Knies recorded his second career four-point game in the NHL and first since Jan. 4, 2025, when he had five points (three goals, two assists) against the Boston Bruins. He joined Nylander (two) as the only Maple Leafs players with multiple four-point games dating to last season. … LaCombe recorded his 38th assist of the season. The last Ducks defenseman to record more assists in a season was Lubomir Visnovsky (50 in 2010-11). … Maple Leafs forward Michael Pezzetta was minus-1 in 3:43 of ice time in his season debut after being recalled from Toronto of the American Hockey League on Thursday.