The Boston Bruins struggled on the power play to end the regular season, but a few key changes have made it a strength through two games of the postseason.

BOSTON – The Boston Bruins’ power play looked hapless. Entering the final game of the regular season, the Bruins’ man advantage converted on just two out of 30 chances (6.7 percent) in their last 11 games.

Desperate to create a spark, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery mixed up his units. Rather than overloading the talent on the top unit, he made two “even” units that would split a similar amount of time during each opportunity.

Kevin Shattenkirk, David Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha, Danton Heinen and Pat Maroon made up the first unit. Notably, Charlie McAvoy and Brad Marchand shifted down to the second unit with Jake DeBrusk, Charlie Coyle and Morgan Geekie.

The new-look power play showed a spark when Pavel Zacha scored against the Ottawa Senators in Boston’s 3-1 loss to close out the regular season on April 16. Losing the final two games of the regular season was not ideal, but the power play had a boost entering the playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“Our power play needs to come back on line here,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said on April 18. “Fortunately we scored a goal the other night [against Ottawa] to hopefully give the guys a little bit of confidence. And it’s gonna be just a really good challenge at all levels.”

The Bruins stormed to a 5-1 win against Toronto in Game 1 on Saturday, thanks in large part to DeBrusk cashing in twice on the man advantage. In Game 2, Geekie scored on the power play to give Boston a 1-0 lead in the first period.

After ending the regular season 3-for-32 on the power play, the Bruins went 3-for-6 through four periods in the playoffs.

The Maple Leafs ultimately won 3-2 to tie the series, but the Bruins could finally rely on their power play to deliver at a good rate.

“I think we were being pretty hard on ourselves and not giving ourselves enough credit for how good we’ve been [on the power play] most of the year,” Geekie said after Game 2. “So it’s nice to see pucks go in, both units, so we’re just trying to go out there and capitalize on those.”

Ahead of Game 3, James van Riemsdyk practiced on the power play during morning skate, giving the Bruins a new wrinkle as the series shifts to Toronto. The Maple Leafs made the kills they needed to down the stretch in Game 2 to preserve the win, but they realize Boston’s two-unit approach will continue to test them down the stretch.

“You've got to see your way through the full two minutes for sure,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said on Tuesday. “They've got things spread out there pretty good, and they've got threats on both groups. We saw that certainly in Game 1. … You've got to see your way through the full two minutes. I love the way we did that last night in crunch time at the end.”

We’ll see how the adjustments impact Game 3.