Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
After sputtering in Boston, the Maple Leafs officially arrived to the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, defeating the Bruins by a 4-2 final and slicing Boston’s series lead in half on Monday.
But not without some dueling headstands between Tuukka Rask and Frederik Andersen.
Coming out of the gate just peppering the 31-year-old Rask, doubling up the Bruins in first-period scoring chances, it was on a James van Riemsdyk power-play goal scored right in Rask’s kitchen that the Leafs captured their first lead of the series, scored 17:05 into the first period.
Weathering what could and should have been a disastrous storm in the opening 20, the Bruins responded when an Adam McQuaid shot trickled through Andersen and over the line just 3:06 into the second period. Toronto answered 43 after, though, by way of Patrick Marleau’s snipe.
Boston again countered, this time off a top shelf activate-and-snipe from Zdeno Chara.
The seesaw continued in the middle stanza, however, and from an unlikely situation.
With the Patrice Bergeron line pinned in the defensive zone, and with countless board battles lost by the Black and Gold, Auston Matthews struck for his first goal of the postseason. In fact, the goal served as Matthews’ first with Bergeron matched up against him at five-on-five play this season.
“It felt like an earthquake in your feet,” Matthews said. “It’s definitely emotional and very exciting.”
Down by a goal in the third period, the Bruins threw everything they could at Andersen.
An early third-period power-play chance gave them life, but no goals.
And in what finished as a night including 18 missed shots and four shots off the post, it was on the back of Andersen (40 saves on 42 shots) and an insurance marker from Marleau late in the third that the Maple Leafs showed fight and captured an undeniably needed Game 3 victory in Toronto.
This and that
- The sky should not be falling if you’re a Bruins fan. You withstood Toronto’s best punch and were in this game until the 56th minute of hockey. Also: Give the Bruins this many chances in Game 4 and I have to think that their results are going to be a lot better, especially with these shooters on deck.
On WEEI: Toronto proved they’re not losers, now comes Boston’s chance to prove something...
- The Bruins should hope that Matt Grzelcyk (lower-body) is well enough to give it a go Thursday night. You can’t have a third-pairing defenseman that you only trust for less than 13 minutes, which is exactly what happened with Nick Holden (12:25 of time on ice in the losing effort). It’s just not sustainable, especially if you’re talking about the first of what you hope is a multi-round run.
- How did Bruce Cassidy feel about Riley Nash’s delay of game penalty, a penalty that kickstarted the Leafs’ offense by way of a James van Riemsdyk power-play strike? Well, this answers it.
"My question was who made the call?" Cassidy, who typically opts to not hammer officiating, began. "Because they come together [and] there's no call immediately. Usually as a coach, when a referee makes a call and they make it, you kind of live with it because it's decisive. So now, they get together and I assume they want to make the right call, that's the idea, we understand that. But to me, they all got together and clearly they guessed because it hit the glass and we saw that. So they guessed.”
The Nash penalty stood as Toronto’s lone power-play opportunity of the night. The Bruins did not get theirs until the 40th minute of play. A chance on which they did not convert despite a billion chances.
Up next
The Bruins will look to take a commanding 3-1 series lead Thursday night in Toronto.
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
Join the Discussion:
»