The Toronto Maple Leafs win over the Boston Bruins in Game 3 of their best-of-seven series was everything that Mike Babcock has been looking for all season. The club played with energy, won the majority of the puck battles and did the little things necessary to achieve victory in the playoffs. Two days later, the Leafs put forth an effort reminiscent of their struggles in the final month of the regular season, losing 6-4 to the Bruins in Game 4 at Scotiabank Arena and blowing an opportunity to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.
Toronto was their own worst enemy in a critical game, falling behind early as Boston cashed in on their opportunities. Zach Hyman and Auston Matthews brought the Leafs back to even early in the second period, but the Bruins re-established their two-goal lead in short order thanks to a pair of David Pastrnak goals.
After Zdeno Chara’s shot from long range made it 5-2 early in the third, Toronto staged a desperate comeback with Matthews and Travis Dermott narrowing the Bruins lead to one, but the heroics fell short and Boston held on to even the series at 2-2 and regain home-ice advantage.
“I thought we had real good energy tonight. I didn't think we had (our) brain(s) all the time, not what we wanted. We kind of turned the puck over, (made) two real big mistakes on the penalty kill, I thought we ended up giving up freebies.” Babcock said after the game. “(We made) too many turnovers in the first period trying to play too high-octane, instead of just looking after the puck and playing right like we've been playing.”
Frederik Andersen had his worst performance of the playoffs, allowing five goals on 31 shots, while Tuukka Rask made 38 saves in the win and made big stops on William Nylander and Connor Brown.
The key to the game was Toronto’s inability to corral Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak (who accounted for half of the Boston goals and did it against the Leafs top line Zach Hyman, John Tavares and Mitch Marner and the pairing of Jake Muzzin and Nikita Zaitsev), and limit the Bruins power play, which scored twice on the night.
Hyman suffered an unspecified injury late in the third period in a collision with Boston’s Brad Marchand and struggled to get off the ice. The Leafs winger is expected to be in the lineup for Game 5 on Friday, but like many players on both teams, he will not be at 100%.
“(Hyman) seems to be doing good. He’s a tough kid, he’s going to find a way to play.” Babcock said. “Obviously there will be lots of people at this time of year that aren’t feeling as great as they should be, but pushing through it is what it’s all about.”
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