*Photo from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette*
Boston leads series 2-1
This rivalry is taking center stage. Jake DeBrusk scored, Brad Marchand had two goals and an assist, and the Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 4-2 victory Wednesday night in Toronto.
The Bruins took a 2-1 advantage in the series against the rival Maple Leafs, two wins away from advancing to the second round. Marchand was the only player with multiple points for the Bruins, who scored 3 times in the 3rd period to secure the win.
After a scoreless first period, Matthew Knies gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead 13:10 into the second period with his first goal of the playoffs. Trent Frederic scored 4:27 after Knies to tie the game for the Bruins with Morgan Geekie and Hampus Lindholm assisting. DeBrusk scored on the power play 1:07 into the 3rd to put the Bruins ahead 2-1.
Later in the 3rd period, Tyler Bertuzzi scored for the Maple Leafs, tying the game 2-2 with Morgan Rielly and Max Domi getting assists. Marchand put the Bruins ahead 28 seconds later with help from Danton Heinen. With the net empty and 36 seconds left to play, Marchand scored again to seal the 4-2 win for the Bruins.
Marchand said of the win that "We stuck with it all game. It wasn’t always pretty, and I said it the other day, they’re coming very hard, they’re playing very physical, but I thought we elevated to another level from where we had been at the first couple of games, and it was great. It paid off."
Getting the start in goal for the Bruins was Jeremy Swayman, who improved to 2-0 in the playoffs with his latest win against Toronto. Swayman stopped 28 of the 30 shots the Maple Leafs sent his way, posting a .933 save percentage.
It was Ilya Samsonov who started between the pipes for the Maple Leafs, getting saddled with the loss to drop to 1-2. Samsonov made 30 saves on the 33 shots the Bruins offense tested him with, giving him a .909 save percentage.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of the loss "Little mistakes at very important times that end up in our net, but in general I just didn’t think we got to our game nearly as much tonight as we did in the others. Credit to Boston, they played hard, made it hard to get through the neutral zone, and I didn’t think we did enough to manage through that."
Game 4 of the series is on Saturday night in Toronto. The Bruins will look to take a commanding 3-1 series lead before going back home while the Maple Leafs will try to tie the series again and force a game 6.
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