Achi news desk-
TORONTO – Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were having a lively discussion on the bench.
William Nylander was caught on camera muttering to himself during the second period. Marner then took off his gloves and slammed them on the ground.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were down 2-0 in a much-needed game on Saturday. The angst from Toronto’s offensive stars – players accustomed to getting their way on offense – would only grow.
Now the season hangs in the balance.
Brad Marchand became the Bruins’ leading playoff goal scorer and added an assist as Boston smothered the disjointed Leafs 3-1 to take a 3-1 lead in the teams’ first-round series.
“Guys are trying. It’s a good team there that limits us,” said Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe. “You can question a lot of things… can’t question the effort.”
To make matters worse, Matthews did not play the final period due to an illness that forced him to miss Friday’s practice.
“He’s been giving us everything,” Keefe said. “Eventually the doctors removed it.”
James van Riemsdyk and David Pastrnak had the other goals for Boston, which can close out the best-of-seven series in Game 5 at home on Tuesday. Jeremy Swayman made 24 saves.
“Guys were committed,” Marchand said of the Bruins’ defensive structure. “We played tight. Guys did a great job going back and getting sticks in lanes and making it difficult for them.”
Marner answered for Toronto in the third. Ilya Samsonov stopped 14-of-17 shots in 40 minutes of action. Joseph Woll played third and finished with five saves. Nylander made his playoff debut in 2024 after missing the first three games with an undisclosed injury.
Game 6, if necessary, would be back in Toronto on Thursday.
Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1: Maple Leafs vs. Bruins
Stay tuned as the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins renew their Original Six rivalry in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Swayman, who also started Games 1 and 3, got the call for Linus Ullmark as the Bruins wandered from their crumbling rotation that had seen the goalie rotate since February.
Meanwhile, Marner denied that frustration was creeping into the group when asked about that sequence with Matthews and Nylander.
“We are grown men,” he said. “Just a bit off the page there. We don’t yell at each other yet because we hate each other … we talked about it afterwards. We’re just trying to make a play.”
“We expect a lot from each other and we love each other,” Nylander added. “Just to push each other, have a high ceiling, I think it’s great.”
Toronto was unable to connect on two first period power plays – falling to 1-for-13 in the series – with the crowd buzzing before the visitors pushed ahead.
Leafs tough guy Ryan Reaves turned the puck over and Van Riemsdyk, who played in Toronto between 2013 and 2018, pounced on the miscue to score his first of the series at 15:09.
Toronto winger Max Domi took a cross-checking penalty seven minutes into the second, and Boston’s red-hot power play capitalized with his sixth goal in four games when Marchand retimed his second – and 56th of ‘to his postseason career to pass Cam Neely for the best position in franchise history – at 8:20.
After Matthews, Marner and Nylander had their talk, the Bruins, who topped Toronto by seven games in the opening round of the 2013, 2018 and 2019 playoffs, went up 3-0 with 41.6 seconds left in the period on another series of Leafs mistakes led to a 2-on-0 where Marchand fed Pastrnak for his second.
“We’re not getting on the right side of it,” Toronto captain John Tavares said. “Getting into a hole is difficult, especially against a team that defends as well as they do.”
Fans were encouraged to be in full voice after some criticism about the atmosphere of Game 3, but they channeled that energy into a chorus of boos as the clock ticked down to the break.
The Leafs changed the goal and were without Matthews when Ilya Lyubushkin netted Swayman’s cross three minutes into the third.
Marner finally got the home team on the board when he slipped his first of the playoffs past Swayman at 5:42. Then he denied Bruins goalie Joel Edmundson on two consecutive chances with the Leafs pressing.
Toronto had another power play with less than six minutes left in regulation, but was barely able to gain control in the offensive zone to fall to 1-for-15 with the man advantage.
The boos returned in the final minute to send the Leafs, who now need three straight wins against a team that has won 10 of the last 11 between the head-to-head clubs, on the road to keep their season alive.
“We have a tremendous fan base that wants to see us win and have success so badly,” Tavares said. “You can’t blame them.”
The message is a simple one looking ahead to Tuesday.
“Stay together,” Tavares added. “Keep going, find a way to get a win and bring it back here.”
LEGEND OF HONOR
The Leafs paid tribute to late play-by-play man Bob Cole – the famed broadcaster who was the voice of hockey for generations of Canadian fans – with a video montage of some of his memorable puck-drop calls. Cole died on Wednesday aged 90.
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