Bruins Notes: Full 60-Minute Effort Led To Boston’s Season Sweep Of Leafs

BOSTON — The Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs combined for 91 hits and 55 shots on goal in Boston’s 4-1 victory at TD Garden on Thursday night.

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said he thought Boston started the game on time and didn’t shy away from contact.

“I thought we were really physical to start the game,” Montgomery told reporters. “I thought we were finishing checks and I thought in turn when we got the lead and the game got out of hand (the Leafs) got physical, in that, maybe trying to send a message, maybe for the playoffs. Potentially, if the playoffs started today, we’d be playing them. I liked our physicality, but theirs was a little too late.”

Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves for his second victory over Toronto in four days. He credited his teammates with the dominant wins against the Maple Leafs and the overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.

“I think playing 60 minutes consistently, and that’s three games in a row for us,” Swayman said. “That’s really important for our group coming in this point in the season and something we could definitely build on as a momentum booster.”

Boston got goals from David Pastrnak, Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie and Brandon Carlo in the matchup. Carlo emphasized the team game the Bruins played.

“I felt like they came out and tried to have some push at times, but I felt like we handled that really well,” Carlo said. “Got all five guys in there in certain situations and made it known that that wasn’t going to be the way that things were gonna go tonight.

“We weren’t going to allow them to push us around. I was really happy with our group with the way that we played behind as well and accomplished the job tonight. I thought we played a full 60 minutes and that was good to build toward what we’re trying to accomplish later on.”

In the past three games, the Bruins have allowed just three regulation goals from their opponents, which Montgomery attests to Boston getting back to its checking game.

“I think everybody realized that we weren’t being sharp,” Montgomery said. “I can’t give enough credit to our leaders. They hold everyone in the room accountable, and people follow suit because we do have good leaders, and we do have real good people under them that are some leaders.”

Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Maple Leafs game:

— Carlo’s fourth goal of the season came with 1:37 left to play in the second period. The 6-foot-5 defenseman sent a wrist shot past Joesph Woll to give the Bruins the 4-1 lead.

“Put it toward the net. I saw Charlie Coyle was kind of tipping and he had a great screen there,” Carlo explained. “When you have those opportunities; it’s happened a couple of times this year when we put it in the direction and it gets tipped or whatnot, but thankfully, it was able to go in for me tonight.”

Brando from the blue line. pic.twitter.com/5QrNvPraiG

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 8, 2024

— Boston swept the season series with Toronto by defeating the Maple Leafs 3-2 in a shootout on Nov. 2, 4-3 in overtime on Dec. 2 and two 4-1 victories this week. The Bruins extended their winning streak over the Maple Leafsto seven games, which began in the 2022 season. Toronto last defeated Boston on Nov. 22, 2022.

— With the win the Bruins improved to 37-13-15 overall, 14-3-3 against Atlantic Division opponents and 21-9-5 in matchups in the Eastern Conference.

— The Bruins will host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET and will air on ABC. Bruins action will return to NESN on Monday when Boston hosts the St. Louis Blues.