Boston Bruins Take Down Toronto Maple Leafs in 3-2 Shootout Win

The Bruins improved to a 9-0-1 record on Thursday night at TD Garden.

The Boston Bruins hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden on Thursday night and won 3-2 in a shootout. 

Mason Lohrei made his NHL debut, skating on the second defensive pair with Brandon Carlo. Hampus Lindholm and Kevin Shattenkirk played together on the first pair while Parker Wotherspoon and Ian Mitchell were the third pair. In the absence of Matt Grzelcyk – upper-body injury – and Charlie McAvoy – four-game suspension – the Bruins’ blue line had a new look but held up pretty well.

The first period got off to a slow start from both teams. Despite some solid O-zone time from the Bruins in the opening two minutes, neither side could get much going from then on. By the 10 minute mark, Toronto had only four shots on goal to Boston’s five.

Jeremy Swayman, in his fifth start of the season, didn’t see a whole lot of action in the first half of the period, but looked sharp once the Maple Leafs started getting some quality looks in the final five minutes.

The Bruins closed out the opening frame with a goal from Pavel Zacha at 18:51 – a play on which Lohrei logged his first NHL point. The 22-year-old defenseman dropped the puck down to Carlo by the right circle who dished it across to the slot for Zacha to knock past Toronto goaltender Ilya Samsonov for the 1-0 advantage and his fourth goal of the season.

Jake DeBrusk doubled his team’s lead in the beginning of the second period with his first goal of the season, on the rush with Brad Marchand. Chipped the puck by Charlie Coyle, Marchand got off the initial shot – which Samsonov shrugged away – but DeBrusk was there on the right doorstep to whack the rebound in at 1:36.

David Pastrnak took a tripping penalty at 2:38, but the Bruins’ penalty kill was solid – as it's been all season – and killed it off. Lohrei got some time on the PK and made a sharp move at the top of the zone to clear the puck towards the end of the minor.

The Maple Leafs soon came storming back, though, and scored two goals in just over a minute to tie the game 2-2 thanks to Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.

Marner’s tally came at 6:31 when he slickly pulled the puck around Carlo by the left dot and snapped it past Swayman to bring his group within one with a 2-1 score. Matthews found the equalizer at 7:34 after Shattenkirk failed to clear the puck off the right boards. Calle Järnkrok picked up the rubber in the corner and got it to Matthews in front who ripped it home to make it 2-2.

Toronto took over for a majority of the second period and had an onslaught of chances – especially on its second power play – but the score remained tied heading into the third. While the B's came inches away from regaining the lead multiple times in the final minutes of the period, nothing found the back of the net and Boston headed to overtime for the second game in a row. 

The Bruins got on the power play at 2:25 of overtime off a William Nylander holding call but couldn't convert and a shootout then ensued. Boston sealed the 3-2 win in the shootout with goals from DeBrusk and Coyle and two saves from Swayman on Nylander and Matthews.