Marleau scores two, Leafs pull back in series

Auston Matthews scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, former Shark Patrick Marleau had two goals, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 on Monday night in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

James van Riemsdyk also scored and Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly added two assists each to help Toronto pull to 2-1 in the best-of-seven set. Frederik Andersen stopped 40 shots.

Adam McQuaid and Zdeno Chara had the goals for Boston, Sean Kuraly had two assists, and Tuukka Rask finished with 26 saves.

Matthews was held without a point through 120 minutes where Toronto was outscored, outmuscled and outplayed in losing by a combined 12-4 margin at Boston. However he came through to snap a 2-2 tie with 5:13 left in the second when he rifled a shot short-side highs on Rask from a sharp angle after a great feed down low by William Nylander.

The Maple Leafs finally sealed it with 3:35 left when Marleau scored his second of night on a 2-on-1 rush, firing a shot past Rask for the 70th career playoff goal. AVALANCHE 5, PREDATORS 3 >> Nathan MacKinnon scored twice, including one as part of a threegoal first period and another to chase Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne from the game, and the Colorado held on to pull to 2-1 in the first-round series.

Blake Comeau and Gabriel Bourque also scored in a furious opening period that revved up a pom-pom waving capacity crowd. Gabriel Landeskog was credited with an empty-net goal for the Avalanche, who snapped a 12-game skid against the Predators.

DEVILS 5, LIGHTNING 2 >> Taylor Hall had a goal and two assists, setting up Stefan Noesen’s gamewinner with 7:05 play, and New Jersey scored four times in the third period to claw their way back into their first-round series with Tampa Bay with a win in Game 3.

Rookie Will Butcher had a power-play goal earlier in the third period to tie the score 2-all, and Blake Coleman and Ben Lovejoy added empty net goals late.