BOSTON — — The Boston Bruins have been clinging to a one-goal lead when defenseman Charlie McAvoy caught a skate edge and fell whereas making an attempt to race Toronto’s Auston Matthews to a unfastened puck.
The Maple Leafs’ ahead — and the highest goal-scorer within the NHL this season — had nobody left between him and the aim. Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman got here out to attempt to poke away the puck however did not get there in time. Matthews turned and fired on the open internet — proper off the close to publish.
“I believed I believed it was 1-1 as quickly as he received by Sway,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery mentioned after Boston pulled away to beat Toronto 5-1 within the opener of the first-round playoff sequence on Saturday evening. “We will’t give Matthews these form of alternatives. He’s too good a goal-scorer.”
Bruins rookie Jonny Beecher scored on his first profession postseason shot on aim to provide the Bruins a 1-0 lead lower than three minutes in. It was nonetheless a one-goal sport within the second interval when Matthews, who led the NHL with 69 objectives this season, caught Swayman away from the crease however banged the puck off the goalpost.
“I simply wished to see if I can get there earlier than him,” Swayman mentioned. “Glad it didn’t go in.”
A minute after Matthews’ miss, Brandon Carlo made it 2-0, then Jake DeBrusk added a pair of power-play objectives to open a 4-0 lead. Trent Frederic added an empty-netter to make it 5-1 with simply over two minutes left.
David Kampf scored for Toronto, and Ilya Samsonov stopped 23 photographs.
“Within the second interval, we had a few possibilities, actually good possibilities, a few of our greatest possibilities within the sport,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe mentioned. “Matthews (had) an opportunity to even the rating. We don’t do this, and … it results in our internet. Then the penalties pop up, which allowed them to tug away within the sport.
“This time of 12 months, you’ll be able to’t make these errors,” Keefe mentioned. “The workforce that does finally ends up on the incorrect facet of the sport.”
Recreation 2 is Monday evening in Boston earlier than the sequence shifts to Toronto for Video games 3 and 4. If the Bruins comply with their sample from the season, it will likely be Linus Ullmark in internet as a substitute of Swayman.
“It’s going to be laborious to go away from Sway. He performed a terrific sport,” Montgomery mentioned. “If we determine to go together with Ullmark, we’re comfy with it, and our workforce’s comfy with it. It doesn’t have an effect on us within the room, whoever begins subsequent.”
The Maple Leafs are anxious to finish a half-century Stanley Cup drought and snap Canada’s 30-year droop — or at the least construct on final 12 months, after they received a playoff sequence for the primary time since 2004. However to do it, they’ll should get previous an Authentic Six nemesis.
Toronto hasn’t overwhelmed the Bruins within the playoffs in six tries since 1959. Boston additionally swept the regular-season sequence 4-0.
This was extra of the identical.
Toronto, which scratched No. 2 scorer William Nylander resulting from an undisclosed damage, tried to set a bodily tone even earlier than the opening faceoff, when Max Domi tried to provoke Bruins captain Brad Marchand. It didn’t work, with Boston opening a 2-0 lead after which profiting from the Leafs’ penalties to tug away.
Beecher, who performed 17 video games within the AHL this season, transformed a two-on-one with Jesper Boqvist to provide Boston the lead 2:26 into the sport.
It stayed that approach till about 5 minutes have been gone within the second, when DeBrusk dug the puck out from behind the Toronto internet and fed it to Carlo within the slot for the aim. The Leafs picked up back-to-back penalties, and the Bruins scored on each of them earlier than Kampf made it 4-1 and spoiled the shutout early within the third.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl