Brad Marchand broke the deadlock midway through the third period and the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
Just 28 seconds after the Maple Leafs tied the game, Danton Heinen did a good job in the backcourt and recovered the puck past Joel Edmundson. His pass then found the blade of Marchand’s stick, who lodged the puck over the shoulder of Ilya Samsonov, on the near side.
Marchand completed his evening of work by hitting the target in an empty net, with only 36 seconds left to play.
“We never stopped fighting,” Marchand said. We took our game up a notch. »
The Bruins captain was also true to himself by taking his share of punishments.
“It’s clear that he wants to make us lose patience and influence the referees,” said Matthew Knies, who scored one of the Leafs’ goals. We just need to stay calm and not fall into the trap. »
The Bruins rallied well to take a 2-1 lead in this first round series. The fourth duel will still take place in Toronto on Saturday.
Trent Frederic and Jake DeBrusk also moved the strings for the Boston squad, which lost 3-2 in the second clash. Marchand also collected an assist.
Jeremy Swayman returned to his net after giving way to Linus Ullmark on Monday. He blocked 28 shots for the Bruins.
Knies and Tyler Bertuzzi responded for the Maple Leafs, who were without the services of winger William Nylander for a third straight game. Samsonov surrendered three times in 33 shots.
Nylander, who played in all 82 games for Toronto this season, is trying to heal an undisclosed injury. He had performed drills with Calle Jarnkrok and Pontus Holmberg during the morning warm-up, but remained on the ice after his teammates had retreated to the locker room.
Forward Nick Robertson, who replaced Nylander in the starting lineup for the first and second games, left the ice at the same time as his teammates, leading people to believe he would be in uniform for the third game. He played for 9:42.
Merchant gets up
The Maple Leafs opened the scoring at 13:10 of the second period. Mitch Marner broke away from a defender and passed the puck to Knies, who redirected it behind Swayman.
Moments later, Samsonov stopped a partial breakaway from Jame van Riemsdyk, but the Bruins tied the game at 17:37, when Frederic’s shot surprised the Maple Leafs goaltender.
While the two teams were nose to nose after 40 minutes, DeBrusk propelled his team in advance during a numerical superiority, from the 67th second of the last third. He jumped on a return shot from Marchand before sending the puck into the back of the net.
The Maple Leafs then got a power play, but despite some good scoring chances from Bertuzzi, they couldn’t beat Swayman. Bertuzzi, however, was lucky when Morgan Rielly’s shot deflected past him and Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm to tie the game.
Marchand, however, silenced the fans a few seconds later. Toronto buzzed late in the game, but captain John Tavares took a penalty with just over a minute remaining.
With the collaboration of Canadian Press journalist Joshua Clipperton