TORONTO (AP) — Matthew Knies had three goals and two assists, Mitch Marner had a goal and four assists, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 6-4 on Saturday night.
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.
Click to Gallery
Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) tries to move the puck between Boston Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei (6) and teammate Brad Marchand (63) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll (60) gathers the puck after it struck the post without scoring during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Nicholas Robertson (89) tries for a deflection on Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman (1) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Boston Bruins center Trent Frederic (11) celebrates his goal with teammates on the bench during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Nicholas Robertson (89) watches for the deflection on Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman (1) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll (60) makes a save as Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) digs in during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe (22) celebrates his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe (22) celebrates his goal with teammates on the bench during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit (2) watches the puck pass him on a shot towards teammate Joseph Woll (60) as Boston Bruins center John Beecher (19) looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Matthew Knies (23) celebrates his goal with teammates Mitch Marner (16) and Auston Matthews (34) during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
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.
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.
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.
Toronto opened the scoring for the fifth straight game and is 17-2-1 when scoring first this season.
Bruins host the New York Islanders on Sunday, and Maple Leafs host Philadelphia to open a home-and-home set.
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) tries to move the puck between Boston Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei (6) and teammate Brad Marchand (63) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll (60) gathers the puck after it struck the post without scoring during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Nicholas Robertson (89) tries for a deflection on Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman (1) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Boston Bruins center Trent Frederic (11) celebrates his goal with teammates on the bench during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Nicholas Robertson (89) watches for the deflection on Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman (1) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll (60) makes a save as Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) digs in during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe (22) celebrates his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe (22) celebrates his goal with teammates on the bench during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit (2) watches the puck pass him on a shot towards teammate Joseph Woll (60) as Boston Bruins center John Beecher (19) looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Matthew Knies (23) celebrates his goal with teammates Mitch Marner (16) and Auston Matthews (34) during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Toronto, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Congress will gather Monday to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s election under the tightest national security level possible. Layers of tall black fencing flank the U.S. Capitol complex in a stark reminder of what happened on this day four years ago.
Here's the latest:
On the morning of the certification, the U.S. Capitol was covered in snow with roads blocked off for miles as police hoped for a quiet day in Congress.
At certain points, there were more officers than staff as many lawmakers were expected to be absent Monday due to the inclement weather. It’s a stark difference from what transpired four years ago today as lawmakers, staff and reporters hid from a violent mob that overtook the Capitol building, leaving mayhem in their wake.
President Joe Biden is decrying what he calls an “unrelenting effort” to downplay a mob of Donald Trump supporters overrunning the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block certification of the 2020 election — seeking to contrast that day’s chaos with what he promises will be an orderly transition returning Trump to power for a second term.
In an opinion piece published Sunday in The Washington Post, Biden recalled Jan. 6, 2021, writing that “violent insurrectionists attacked the Capitol.”
“We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault,” Biden wrote. “And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year.”
▶Read more about Biden’s opinion piece
Under heavy security, lawmakers in the snowy Capitol will gather at 1 p.m. ET to count the electoral votes in the 2024 election and declare Donald Trump the winner.
The joint session, which takes place on Jan. 6 every four years, is the final step after the Electoral College meets in December to officially elect the winner of the White House.
At the center of the process are sealed electoral certificates from each state, which are brought into the House chamber in special mahogany boxes that are used for the occasion. Those same boxes were rushed to safety four years ago as rioters breached the Capitol.
Bipartisan representatives of both chambers will read the results out loud and do an official count. No challenges to the results are expected this year, which means the process should move quickly.
Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, will preside over the session and certify her defeat to Trump.
Four years ago, then-President Donald Trump urged supporters to head to the Capitol to protest Congress’ certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
“Will be wild!” Trump promised on Twitter a few weeks before Jan. 6, 2021. And it was.
This year, the only turbulence preceding the quadrennial ratification of the presidential election resulted from House Republicans fighting among themselves over who should be speaker.
▶Read more on why the calm may be illusory
It’s the largest prosecution in Justice Department history — with reams of evidence, harrowing videos and hundreds of convictions of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Now Donald Trump’s return to power has thrown into question the future of the more than 1,500 federal cases brought over the last four years.
Jan. 6 trials, guilty pleas and sentencings have continued chugging along in Washington’s federal court despite Trump’s promise to pardon rioters, whom he’s called “political prisoners” and “hostages” he contends were treated too harshly.
In a statement Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Justice Department prosecutors “have sought to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy with unrelenting integrity.”
▶ Read more about Jan. 6 prosecutions
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday is set to preside over the certification of her defeat to Donald Trump four years after he tried to stop the very process that will now return him to the White House.
In a video message, Harris described her role as a “sacred obligation” to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.
“As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile,” she said. “And it is up to each of us to stand up for our most cherished principles.”
Harris will be joining a short list of other vice presidents to oversee the ceremonial confirmation of their election loss as part of their role of presiding over the Senate. Richard Nixon did it after losing to John F. Kennedy in 1960. Al Gore followed suit when the U.S. Supreme Court tipped the 2000 election to George W. Bush.
▶ Read more about Vice President Kamala Harris
What’s unclear is if Jan. 6, 2021, was the anomaly, the year Americans violently attacked their own government, or if this year’s expected calm becomes the outlier. The U.S. is struggling to cope with its political and cultural differences at a time when democracy worldwide is threatened. Trump calls Jan. 6, 2021, a “day of love.”
“We should not be lulled into complacency,” said Ian Bassin, executive director of the cross-ideological nonprofit Protect Democracy.
He and others have warned that it’s historically unprecedented for U.S. voters to do what they did in November, reelecting Trump after he publicly refused to step aside last time. Returning to power an emboldened leader who’s demonstrated his unwillingness to give it up “is an unprecedentedly dangerous move for a free country to voluntarily take,” Bassin said.
The fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has a new focus as lawmakers brace for the prospect that President-elect Donald Trump may soon pardon many of the more than 1,500 people charged with crimes for their actions related to the riot.
▶Read more about Trump’s promises to issue pardons
As Congress convenes during a winter storm to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s election, the legacy of Jan. 6 hangs over the proceedings with an extraordinary fact: The candidate who tried to overturn the previous election won this time and is legitimately returning to power.
Lawmakers will gather noontime Monday under the tightest national security level possible. Layers of tall black fencing flank the U.S. Capitol complex in a stark reminder of what happened four years ago, when a defeated Trump sent his mob to “fight like hell” in what became the most gruesome attack on the seat of American democracy in 200 years.
No violence, protests or even procedural objections in Congress are expected this time. Republicans from the highest levels of power who challenged the 2020 election results when Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden have no qualms this year after he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris.
And Democrats frustrated by Trump’s 312-226 Electoral College victory nevertheless accept the choice of the American voters. Even the snowstorm barreling down on the region wasn’t expected to interfere with Jan. 6, the day set by law to certify the vote.
▶ Read more about what to expect today
Security fencing surrounds Capitol Hill as snow blankets the region ahead of a joint session of Congress to certify the votes from the Electoral College in the presidential election, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Security fencing surrounds Capitol Hill as snow blankets the region ahead of a joint session of Congress to certify the votes from the Electoral College in the presidential election, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Snow falls at the Capitol ahead of a joint session of Congress to certify the votes from the Electoral College in the presidential election, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
