In Toronto, the Maple Leafs are on the precipice of bowing out of another first round Stanley Cup Playoff series.
Last season the Leafs made it to the second round of the playoffs, for the first since Lincoln was president in the US.
On Saturday night, the Boston Bruins took the second of two road games, 3-1, over the Maple Leafs, and now lead the series, 3-1 headed home.
Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves in the win.
“What went into the decision (to play Swayman again over Linus Ullmark) was we rotated the first two games and then Swayman played so well, we were going to go with the hot hand,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said.
Boston took a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza on a strike by James van Riemsdyk at 15:09, scoring off a muffed clearing attempt by the Leafs’ Ryan Reaves. The puck ended up on van Riemsdyk’s stick in the left circle for a one-timer for the goal..
“It gives us another line that is going to score,” Montgomery said about the play of van Riemsdyk, who was a healthy scratch for the first two games of the series. “Besides how good he is on the power play, how effective he can be at 5-on-5 offensively.”
In the middle frame, Boston’s Brad Marchand scored from the right circle at 8:20 off a pass from Charlie McAvoy. Coyle.
“He was outstanding the last two games here,” Boston’s David Pastrnak said. “He creates so much for our team, not only the production that is coming right now last couple games for him, but he’s all over the ice. He’s killing (penalties) for us, he’s playing big minutes. … He’s our captain and he definitely led us the right way the last two games, and it’s easy to follow when your captain is doing that.”
Game 5 is set for Boston on Tuesday.
“Obviously tough when this was an important game,” Toronto’s Morgan Rielly said. “I think we have to look to be better, we’ve got areas to clean up. I think more things going towards their net. I thought we turned down some shots. When we did get offensive-zone time and did get things towards their net, there was some stuff happening but not nearly enough. Neutral zone, they did a good job of clogging it up.”
Pastrnak pushed the advantage to 3-0 with 42 seconds left on the clock in the second period.He scored off a 2-on-0 rush up ice.
“A little bit of desperation for us,” Marchand said. “We know how offensively gifted they are. They’re extremely talented, you can’t give them much. We kind of saw in the third there, they had a few plays they created out of nothing and they have that ability to do that and take over a game. Some of it is because we are doing the right things and some of it is luck. … We have a big job ahead of us next game and we need to be prepared to do it again.”
Mitch Marner was the lone striker for the Maple Leafs. His goal at 5:43 of the third period trimmed the deficit to 3-1. He scored off a rebound from the mid slot. 
Ilya Samsonov got the start for the Maple Leafs, he yielded all three Boston goals and made 14 saves before getting the hook in the second intermission.
Joseph Woll made five saves in the third period.
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