Leafs complete sweep of Bruins
BIG VICTORY: Late dramatics as Toronto pulls within point of division rivals
On the first day of spring, the Air Canada Centre had a definite playoff feel to it.
And the home side Toronto Maple Leafs just might be there for the real thing in three weeks after a 4-2 win over Boston to close within a point of the Bruins. It was the second straight intense, tight-checking, one-goal game against a tough team and this time Toronto finished on the winning side.
Tied 1-1, Tyler Bozak put the Leafs ahead with a couple minutes remaining with a power-play goal and William Nylander and Nazem Kadri added empty-netters. Dominic Moore, in the box when Bozak scored, added a late goal for the Bruins.
Aiming high in the standings, to catch the Bruins instead of just protecting their tenuous wild-card spot, the Leafs cleared 80 points for the first time in three years. The Leafs have 11 games remaining to solidify a position and hold off pursuers led by the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders, both idle on Monday night.
Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen was once more heavily involved, with his fourth straight win against Boston this season to complete the first Toronto season sweep of the Bs since the teams were reunited in the same division in 1998. He stopped 31 shots as Toronto improved to 5-11 in the Dane’s last seven games.
Toronto survived the Bruins’ best efforts at forechecking, transition and faceoff wins. Tuukka Rask, 15-42 against the Leafs coming in, was also equal to the task when the Leafs made things happen with their own cycle, speed, shot blocks and active sticks.
For the second straight game, Toronto was tied 1-1 entering the third.
The Leafs’ constant vow to “start on time” and not have to rely so much on Andersen faced an immediate challenge when the clock refused to run at the opening faceoff. It was stuck at 20:00 and acted up throughout the period.
After a somewhat tentative start by both teams, that old Leafs-Bruins nastiness began to build. Brad Marchand showed why he’s fighting for the Art Ross Trophy, getting his 80th point with a nice spin move in the Toronto zone to create space. That allowed David Backes a short side goal past two screening defencemen.
Toronto turned strong pressure into its first goal during 4-on-4 play — Nikita Soshnikov took a run at Bergeron that resulted in retaliation and offsetting minors. Though Rask made some nice saves no Bruin picked up Morgan Rielly lurking in from the blue line. Mitch Marner found him, and though Rielly seemed to lose the puck mid-deke, it still squirted through Rask for Rielly’s sixth goal.
For Marner, it was his 39th assist, one behind Gus Bodnar’s Toronto rookie record from 1943-44. James van Riemsdyk matched his career high with helper No. 31.
The first period also saw a player on each team — Boston’s Matt Beleskey and Toronto’s Leo Komarov — take a hard puck to the head from friendly fire.
Boston also had to kill a long 5-on3, coming about when Bergeron’s clearing attempt scaled both benches.
After staying out of the box throughout Saturday’s 2-1 overtime loss to Chicago, Toronto couldn’t maintain that discipline in the second. Nikita Zaitsev fell into the Marchand shift disturber trap after a couple of exchanges with the super pest, flattening him after a whistle. Even Komarov, who specializes in such skulduggery for the Leafs, was antagonized by Marchand at times.
Soshnikov was trying to do the same, though the littlest Leaf was squashed a couple of times by the by 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara.
Toronto has a day off before backto-back home games against the Columbus Blue Jackets Wednesday and the New Jersey Devils Thursday.