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BOSTON – The Boston Bruins (39-24-8) could not figure out the special teams and fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs (30-29-13), 4-2, on Tuesday night at the TD Garden.
Elias Lindholm (14) and Charlie McAvoy (10) scored for the Bruins, with McAvoy’s coming on the power play.
Jeremy Swayman made 32 saves but fell to 28-15-4 on the season. It is his fifth career loss to the Maple Leafs.
The Bruins struck first, but did not start with their best period.
Henri Jokiharju played a long floater to Morgan Geekie, who laid it to his right for Elias Lindholm. In stride, Lindholm collected the puck and directed it toward Anthony Stolarz and beat him blocker-side to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
The goal marked Lindholm’s second 5-on-5 goal since the Olympic break.
The Maple Leafs controlled play for the rest of the first period and went to the locker room with a 9-5 shots advantage.
Swayman stopped all nine.
The Maple Leafs started the second period in penalty trouble. The Bruins drew three straight penalties in the first eight minutes of the middle frame.
But while shorthanded, Matthew Knies tied the game on a breakaway. He outmuscled Mason Lohrei and approached Swayman all alone.
At the end of the period, it flipped. The Bruins were in penalty trouble. Henri Jokiharju took a slashing penalty, and Nikita Zadorov followed up with a 5-minute major for boarding.
Max Domi gave the Maple Leafs a lead on the power play with 1:52 remaining in the second period.
The Maple Leafs outshot the Bruins 13-8 in the second period, continuing to control the pace. Four of the eight Bruins’ shots came on the power play.
Nikita Zadorov’s major penalty carried over into the third period, and the Bruins killed off the remaining 2:53.
William Nylander added to the Maple Leafs’ lead three minutes into the third period.
After the Maple Leafs’ third goal, Zadorov and Dakota Joshua met at center ice for a spirited bout.
The Bruins got their fifth power play of the night in the third period. While on the man-advantage, Pavel Zacha played a backhand pass to a wide-open David Pastrnak, who directed it on frame. The puck deflected off Charlie McAvoy’s stick on its way toward the goal and got past Stolarz.
With the assist, Pastrnak extends his point streak to 10 games (6-8–14).
The Bruins’ power play finished 1-for-5 on Tuesday night and is now 7-for-48 (14.6%) since the Olympic break.
Matthew Knies scored an empty-netter for his second goal of the game with 21.7 seconds on the clock.
According to MoneyPuck, the Bruins sit with a 62.6% chance of making the postseason. They still sit in the first wildcard spot with 11 games to go in the regular season.
The Bruins travel to Buffalo for a game against the division-leading Sabres (44-20-7) on Wednesday night. They follow that game with another back-to-back this weekend.
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The post Special Teams Cost Bruins in Loss to Maple Leafs appeared first on Boston Hockey Now.
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