Bruins push Leafs to the brink
Boston wins with Bergeron out of the lineup to head back home with a 3-1 series lead
TORONTO
— Removing Patrice Bergeron from the Boston Bruins lineup is like taking the clams out of New England chowder.
Yet it turned out to be the Toronto Maple Leafs who were starved for timely offence on Thursday as Boston became the first road team to win in this series. Their 3-1 victory allowed the Bruins to take a solid 3-1 series lead back to Boston, where they’ll be looking to close it out on Saturday night. The Leafs’ 105-point season pointed to an extended spring, but it could now be over while there’s still snow on Bay Street.
Toronto had everything going for it again in Game 4: a hopped-up crowd, two days worth of prep, last line change, and the topper — no sign of the B’s multi-Selke Trophy winner at game time with a mysterious upper body injury.
But Leafs netminder Frederik Andersen allowed a cheesy first-minute goal, Auston Matthews was blanked and Mitch Marner and Patrick Marleau were both halted by Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask on wide open chances, Marner’s coming on a middle period breakaway.
Boston came into the night with a record of 11-5-2 without Bergeron in the lineup. He seemed fine in the morning, but replays of a Tomas Plekanec hit in Game 3 might have given a clue to his injury. Whatever the origin of his absence, it set up a wonderfully favourable centre match for the Leafs — Plekanec against Bergeron’s replacement Riley Nash and David Krejci versus Matthews. At puck drop, the scales quickly changed.
The gathering of nearly 20,000 had just comprehended Bergeron wasn’t playing when replacement Nash powered up the ice on his opening shift between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. He provided the partial screen for a Torey Krug floater that beat Andersen’s blocker, one of the high-side oddball goals that pop up on the Dane’s resume.
That faux pas was forgotten at 7:43, after Marner made a nice play and freed a puck for Marleau. In his 181st playoff game, moving him past Henri Richard on the NHL career list, Marleau steered the puck cross-ice to Plekanec, who snapped his first goal as a Leaf and first since Feb. 22 with Montreal before the trade.
He did a little Matthews’ one-knee fist pump celebration and in the second period, his interception of a pass behind Boston’s net led to half a minute of intense Leaf pressure. But no goal resulted, proving costly late in the frame with Matthews’ line out against Nash’s winded unit after a Boston icing. Instead of jumping on the Bruins, Matthews and mates couldn’t get control off the draw, Adam McQuaid’s clearing pass got through a flat-footed Jake Gardiner at the blue line and Pastrnak and Marchand were off on a 2-on1 break. Gardiner couldn’t get back to stop Marchand from burying the perfect feed.
The goal was the first by a Boston forward in two games at the Air Canada Centre. It was followed early in the third, when Krejci blocked a Travis Dermott shot at the Boston blue line and another odd-man rush developed. Jake DeBrusk buried that. Meanwhile, Zdeno Chara and company pounded away at the Leafs with 32 hits through 40 minutes, an ideal road game.
The opening period began and ended on a downer, when Toronto generated just one shot on a late Debrusk minor.
An uneven start to the second period, hampered by both teams knocking down each other’s stretch passes or misfiring in general, required both goalies to be on their toes. Toronto’s fourth line centre Dominic Moore stole a puck when Chara fell, but Rask snared it as part of his 10-for-10 period.
Moore is facing a Game 5 hiatus as Nazem Kadri returns after a threegame suspension, while Leo Komarov, trying furiously to come back from a lower body injury, hopes to get the nod ahead of substitute left winger Andreas Johnsson from Mike Babcock. The coach will have his toughest assignment in his threeyear term trying to get the Leafs back in this one.