TORONTO — — Brad Marchand broke a tie halfway via the third interval and the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Wednesday evening to take a 2-1 lead within the first-round playoff sequence.
After Todd Bertuzzi tied it for Toronto with 8:35 left, Marchard put the Bruins again in entrance 28 second later. He took a move from Danton Heinen and ripped a shot previous goalie Ilya Samsonov’s ear. Marchand capped the scoring with an empty-netter and in addition had an help.
“We caught with all of it recreation,” Marchand mentioned. “We elevated to a different degree.”
The Maple Leafs have been furious at Marchand’s agitating antics.
“The gamesmanship and the whole lot, it’s world class,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe mentioned about Marchand. “He’s been within the league lengthy sufficient … he will get calls. It’s unbelievable, really, the way it goes. We’ve obtained to play via that.”
Marchand obtained twisted up with Bertuzzi within the second interval with Toronto up 1-0. A frothing Scotiabank Enviornment crowd clamoring for a penalty, the referees took no points earlier than Trent Frederic scored the tying purpose seconds later.
“I don’t suppose there’s one other participant on this sequence that will get away with taking out Bertuzzi’s legs the best way that he does,” Keefe mentioned. “It’s an artwork and he’s elite at it. We’ve got to handle our means via that.”
Jake DeBrusk additionally scored for Boston, and Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves. Swayman made 35 saves in Boston’s 5-1 victory in Recreation 1, then gave strategy to Linus Ullmark in Toronto’s 3-2 victory in Recreation 2.
Matthew Knies additionally scored for Toronto, and Samsonov made 30 saves. Toronto was 0 for five on the facility play, leaving it 1 for 11 within the sequence.
“At occasions we performed nicely,” Keefe mentioned. “Not nicely sufficient to get the win.”
Recreation 4 of the best-of-seven sequence is Saturday evening at Scotiabank Enviornment.
Toronto pulled Samsonov for the additional attacker with simply over two minutes to go, however Maple Leafs captain John Tavares took a holding penalty with 1:04 left and Marchand sealed it with the empty-net purpose.
The Maple Leafs opened the scoring with 6:50 left within the second. Mitch Marner deftly moved previous a defender and slid a move for Knies to redirect upstairs on Swayman.
Boston tied it with 2:23 left within the interval when Frederic’s shot went off the misplaced and in. DeBrusk gave Boston a 2-1 lead at 1:07 of third.
UP NEXT
Recreation 4 is Saturday evening in Toronto.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
