Saturday’s Boston Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs game was a showcase of superb goaltending. Monday’s rematch was a bit more offensively focused.
The Bruins and Maple Leafs combined for six goals in regulation, then needed overtime to settle the second end of their home-and-home series. Five minutes of free hockey was not enough to decide things, sending the game to a shootout.
Only then did Boston finally emerge victorious, with David Krejci beating James Reimer to clinch a 4-3 win for the visitors.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Tuukka Rask denied all three Maple Leafs skaters he faced, and Krejci scored the lone goal of the shootout, allowing the Bruins to sweep the home-and-home and extend their winning streak to three games.
Brad Marchand was Boston’s top offensive performer in the win, scoring two goals — including a baseball-style shorthanded tally — and tying his season high with five shots on net.
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
Zac Rinaldo entered the game as the only Bruins regular who’d yet to record a point this season. That changed in the first period, when he sniped a shot underneath Reimer’s glove for his first goal as a Bruin.
Rask was credited with the secondary assist on the goal, giving the goalie his first point of the season and the seventh of his career.
SPEAKING OF FIRSTS…
Landon Ferraro made his Bruins debut Monday night, one day after Boston claimed him off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings.
The 24-year-old lined up at right wing on Boston’s fourth line and initially appeared to score his first goal of the season midway through the second period.
The official scorer later credited the goal to Marchand, however, giving the B’s winger his second two-goal game of the season. Ferraro was credited with an assist.
WORST LEAD IN HOCKEY
First-period goals by Marchand and Rinaldo gave the Bruins an early 2-0 lead, but the Maple Leafs stormed back in an eventful second frame.
Joffrey Lupul and Leo Komarov scored 62 seconds apart to tie the game, with Lupul’s tally coming after a delayed Bruins penalty allowed the Leafs to add an extra skater. Ferraro’s goal put Boston back ahead, but Tyler Bozak scored Toronto’s third of the period to make it 3-3 heading into second intermission.
PK STEPS UP
The Bruins did not make things easy on themselves late in that second period, as a double minor penalty on Adam McQuaid forced them play shorthanded for four minutes. Marchand took a penalty of his own during that span, leaving Boston without two of its better penalty-killers.
A similar situation ensued in the third, when PK mainstays Zdeno Chara and Zach Trotman both found themselves in the box following a post-whistle scuffle. (Nazem Kadri also was penalized, limiting Toronto to a one-man advantage.).
Boston penalty kill entered the game ranked dead last in the NHL, but it held Toronto scoreless on all six of its power-play opportunities, including one in overtime.
SAVE BY RASK
James van Riemsdyk fell victim to Rask’s two biggest saves of the night. The first came on a 2-on-1 breakaway in the third period — Rask denied van Riemsdyk, then smothered Komarov’s attempt to hammer home the rebound — and the second came in the closing seconds of overtime.
Rask ended up facing 42 shots in the contest and finished with 39 saves — both season highs
UP NEXT
The Bruins visit the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday before returning home to take on the New York Rangers in a Black Friday matinee.
Thumbnail photo via Tom Szczerbowski/USA TODAY Sports Images
