‘All over the puck,’ Nylander leads Leafs
William Nylander ended up with bragging rights over his good friend, David Pastrnak, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins in a wild National Hockey League game Saturday night.
Nylander got his first career hat trick, James van Riemsdyk scored his second of the game to break a tie with 1:36 left, and the Maple Leafs snapped a three-game losing streak with a 6-5 win.
“We’ve got to bring Pastrnak on the road with us all the time to every rink,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock joked.
“(Nylander) always wants to be better than 88, so we’ve just got to get an 88 on every team and he’ll be unbelievable.”
Pastrnak, 20, and from the Czech Republic, and Nylander, 20, who is now Swedish but was born in Canada, play a similar style and are two budding stars. Connor Brown also scored for Toronto, which moved one point behind Boston for third place in the Atlantic Division. The Maple Leafs have played five fewer games than the Bruins. But it was Nylander’s night.
“That’s definitely a night he will remember, for sure,” Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews said. “He was all over the puck. He obviously has an unbelievable shot, a really good release and he was able to utilize it on all three goals.”
Pastrnak scored two goals for Boston, and Ryan Spooner, Patrice Bergeron and Torey Krug each added one. Bergeron and Krug had power-play goals.
The Bruins rallied from a 4-1 deficit and tied it at 5 late.
“You’re always disappointed when you lose a game like that,” Boston coach Claude Julien said.
Frederik Andersen stopped 36 shots for the Maple Leafs. Goaltender Tuukka Rask, playing his 12th consecutive game, was pulled after Leafs’ fourth goal. Zane McIntyre made 10 saves in relief.