Auston Matthews and John Tavares had two goals apiece as the Toronto Maple Leafs picked up their fifth straight victory by defeating the Boston Bruins 5-2 on Saturday night.
Mitch Marner added an empty netter and had three assists for Toronto (7-4-1), while Jack Campbell made 40 saves for the Leafs. Morgan Rielly chipped in with two assists of his own. Tavares also added an assist.
Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak replied for Boston (5-4-0), which got 31 stops from Linus Ullmark. Brad Marchand had two assists.
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The Leafs and Bruins last played Nov. 15, 2019 – a stretch of more than 720 days – when Boston picked up a 4-2 victory at Scotiabank Arena in the final days of the Mike Babcock era.
Tied 1-1 late in the second period, Toronto’s power play stayed hot by connecting for a fourth straight game. Marner moved into the offensive zone and fed a pass to Matthews, who saw the puck go off his skate, Ullmark’s pad and then back to the star centre’s stick for him to bury his fifth goal of the season with 5:01 left.
Marchand then took a penalty for high-sticking on Leafs defenceman Timothy Liljegren with 1:57 left in the period to send the home side back on the man advantage.