Thursday night in Boston saw the open game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins at the TD Garden.
As the Bruins went on the powerplay almost half way through the first period, the home side went on the attack, first deep in the corner then some back and forth play near the blue line between Brad Marchand and Tory Krug, Marchand sent a long pass across the Leafs defensive zone to Patrice Bergeron at the far post, who slotted the puck past Frederik Andersen.
Following a face off in the Bruins end of the ice, the puck was pushed by John Tavares out to Jake Muzzin at the blue line, Muzzin fired it back in, Mitchell Marner tried to deflect the puck around Tukka Rask, but hit the post. The puck bounced out across behind Rask and into open ice, Marner managing to scoop it back towards the net, hitting the post again but with enough momentum it went backwards in to the goal.
Two minutes in to the second period, the Bruins were on a powerplay again, but Marner took the puck from Jake DeBrusk on the Toronto blue line. DeBrusk took Marner down from behind so Marner was awarded a penalty shot for the Leafs. Taking the puck all the way towards Rask, Marner wrong footed the netminder and as Rask committed Marner pulled the puck back and it was a simple move to push it in to the exposed area between Rask and the post, putting the visitors in to the lead. This goal makes Marner the fifth player to pick up a goal from a shorthanded penalty shot during Playoffs.
“That was a [David Pastrnak] move; he’s done that in practice. I put my whole weight on my right foot, and then I just couldn’t get there anymore,” said Rask, talking about the penalty shot. “It was a nice move, fresh ice too, so I probably should’ve recognized that, but yeah, good move.”
Late in the period, Boston were once more on the attack, and while trying to defend Nazem Kadri managed to pass from behind the goal to Patrick Marleau in the corner. Marleau saw William Nylander in space out in centre ice, so a long pass saw Nylander pick up the puck just the other side of the centre line and he streaked towards the goal with just Rask to beat. Nylander kept his cool and doubled the Leafs lead, putting the puck between Rask’s legs and making the score 3-1 in time for the second break.
Late in the third period, Rask headed to the bench to get another skater on. A face off on the Leafs side of the centre line saw Tavares step up against Bergeron. Bergeron knocked the puck out towards David Pastrnak, who tried to pass it to Krug. Tavares has chased though, and despite falling to his knees intercepted the pass, pulled the puck back towards him as he regained his feet on the centre spot and with a flick lifted the puck over Krug’s stick and sent it in to the middle of the unguarded net, ending the game 4-1.
Rask faced 32 shots throughout the game, allowing 3. In the opposite goal, Frederik Anderson faced 38 shots – 21 of which came in the second period – only allowing the one early in the first period.
Following the game, two goals Marner said “That’s a great win for us. We played very well as a team, but we’re going to need to keep it going throughout the series. The games are just going to get harder and harder. As a team, we’ve just got to make sure we come to play every night.”
Game two of the Eastern Conference First Round will take place at the TD Garden on Saturday evening.
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