BRUINS 6, MAPLE LEAFS 3
Anderesen yanked as out-of-sync Leafs come out flat
BOSTON— Once again, the Maple Leafs were not the better team. This time, just for a change however, Toronto lost in regulation because of it.
The Boston Bruins took it to the Leafs — physically and offensively — and skated off to a 6-3 win Saturday night in a game involving two teams that don’t like each other much.
That ended a Leafs’ points streak of five wins and an overtime loss during the last two games in which the opponents — Buffalo and Detroit — played the better game.
Until Saturday, the Leafs had been able to outscore their errors, having scored at least four goals in each of their six previous games.
Nothing seemed quite in sync for the Leafs, even for the top line, which is the only one intact since William Nylander returned. John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman were outplayed by Boston’s big guns of David Krejci, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand.
á For the Leafs: Trailing 4-0, Travis Dermott got his second of the season at 4:03 of the third, a nice wrist shot from the point, set up by Auston Matthews … Matthews scored the Leafs’ second goal for a twopoint night … Andreas Johnsson scored the third goal, the team’s first power-play goal in three games … Garret Sparks came in to relieve Frederik Andersen with Boston up 6-1 (on 27 shots) and 13 minutes left in the game. The Boston crowd loved it, jeering Andersen’s name throughout the third period …It was the first time this season coach Mike Babcock switched goalies during the game.
á Defensive miscues: Tavares skated over the Leaf blue line awkwardly and surrendered the puck in the first period, leading to Boston’s first goal …Killing a penalty, Connor Brown seemed panicked into making an odd choice of sending the puck back towards the Leafs net instead of over the blue line. The play backfired when the puck hit Ron Hainsey. A few seconds later Boston was up 2-0 … Igor Ozhiganov made a bad pinch, leaving Par Lindholm as the last
guy back on Boston’s fourth goal.
á For the Bruins: Jakob Forsback Karlsson — nicknamed JFK in these parts — opened the scoring in the first during some 4-on-4 play. David Backes scored a power-play goal in the second, followed by an even strength seeing-eye shot from the point from Torey Krug for a 3-0 lead heading into the third … Danton Heinen deked Lindholm and beat Andersen with a backhand for a 4-0 Boston lead early in the third.
á Notables: During the Leafs’ 5-0-1 stretch, they had scored at least four goals scored in each game … Marner had 12 assists during the streak … Boston ended a three-game losing streak. á Up next: Tuesday in Carolina, 7 p.m.