BOSTON — The Boston Bruins needed a resurgence, and they received exactly that Saturday night.
The B’s emphatically halted their losing streak at three, taking down the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 at TD Garden in a matchup that nearly featured as many fights as it did goals.
It was an encouraging offensive performance for Boston, who received tallies from six different players. Jaroslav Halak earned his ninth win of the campaign by turning away 29 of 32 shots.
With the win, the Bruins improved to 15-10-4, while the Maple Leafs fell to 20-9-1.
Here’s how it all went down:
JFK STICKS WITH THE PLAY
Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson hasn’t been a consistent fixture in the Bruins’ lineup this season, but he made his presence known early Saturday night. After David Pastrnak backhanded a pass to a streaking JFK, Frederik Andersen got his pad on the puck to briefly put a pause to the sequence. The Maple Leafs goalie wasn’t able to completely corral at it, however, allowing Forsbacka Karlsson to follow up and pot his third goal of the season.
It was a fairly heavy first period, as the two sides combined for six penalty minutes, kicked off by a Charlie McAvoy cross-checking infraction just 13 seconds into the game. Neither side could capitalize on its power-play opportunity despite a few opportune chances. Toronto outshot Boston in the first frame by an 11-8 margin.
TWO TALLIES AND A TUSSLE
After striking out on another power play early in the second period, the Bruins made sure their third man advantage didn’t go by the wayside. After weaving along the boards and creeping toward the net, Brad Marchand found David Backes in the slot, and the veteran forward did the rest by pinpointing a wrist shot over Andersen’s glove side.
The B’s weren’t done in the second frame, though. With just over three minutes remaining in the period, Torey Krug fired a wrister that had eyes from the blue line, as it made its way through traffic to give the Boston defenseman his first goal of the season.
The two tallies weren’t the only causes for excitement in the second period either, as Brandon Carlo’s fight with Nazem Kadri had TD Garden rocking.
GOALS GALORE
There certainly was no shortage of lighting the lamp in the final stanza.
The Bruins kept their foot on the gas as the third period got underway. Just under two minutes in the frame, Danton Heinen received a touch pass from Ryan Donato before splitting two defenders and beating Andersen stick side.
The Maple Leafs were quick to respond, though. Just over two minutes after Heinen’s goal, Auston Matthews sent a tape-to-tape pass to Travis Dermott, who took a few strides toward net before picking the corner and giving the Leafs their first goal of the game.
But there would be no momentum change, as David Krejci answered 37 seconds later by trickling the puck past Andersen to stretch Boston’s lead back to four.
It was Donato’s turn shortly thereafter. Less than two minutes after Krejci’s tally, Donato was the beneficiary of a net-bound pass from Heinen to boost Boston’s lead up to five and send Frederik to the showers.
Toronto kept things somewhat interesting with ensuing goals from Matthews and Andreas Johnsson, but it was too little, too late for the visitors.
UP NEXT
The Bruins will play the second night of their back-to-back Sunday against the Ottawa Senators. Puck drop from Canadian Tire Centre is set for 5 p.m. ET.
This Bruins Wrap is presented by Plainridge Park Casino.
