BOSTON — Another item checked off the list.
As well as the Bruins have played this season, they might have been a little closer to first place in the Atlantic Division if they’d done a little better against the third-place team. The B’s made up for that on Saturday night at TD Garden, ending a six-game losing streak to the Maple Leafs that stretched back to last season via a 4-1 victory.
"We know we hadn’t beaten them," said goalie Tuukka Rask, [...]
BOSTON — Another item checked off the list.
As well as the Bruins have played this season, they might have been a little closer to first place in the Atlantic Division if they’d done a little better against the third-place team. The B’s made up for that on Saturday night at TD Garden, ending a six-game losing streak to the Maple Leafs that stretched back to last season via a 4-1 victory.
“We know we hadn’t beaten them,” said goalie Tuukka Rask, whose 23-save performance stretched his points streak to 20 games (18-0-2), the fourth-longest such streak in franchise history. “But as long as you play your game, play solid hockey, results will come. Tonight, they did.”
The Bruins, who dropped both ends of a home-and-home series to the Leafs in mid-November, got goals from Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Torey Krug, the latter two during power plays, before Tim Schaller hit an empty net with 1:39 to play. The B’s, 16-1-4 over their last 21 games but still second to the Lightning in the Atlantic, pushed their lead over the third-place Maple Leafs to five points, with four games in hand.
The Leafs had won four in a row, a streak punctuated by consecutive shutout victories over the Islanders and Rangers.
The game marked the return of rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who underwent a procedure to treat an abnormal heart rhythm on Jan. 22. McAvoy, expected to need approximately two weeks to recover, returned in 12 days and missed only four games.
“Overall, it was a good game,” said McAvoy, whose 18 minutes, 51 seconds of ice time was a bit below his previous average of 22:48. “And coming out on top like that against a division rival is awesome. We’re really happy in here.”
McAvoy’s comeback didn’t start so happily. He accidentally tipped a puck past Rask at 8:03 of the first period, allowing the Maple Leafs to make it 1-1. Pressed into penalty-killing duty with fellow defenseman Brandon Carlo serving an interference infraction and Kevan Miller (upper-body injury) out of the lineup, McAvoy tried unsuccessfully to control a Mitch Marner shot that Sean Kuraly had partially blocked and was going wide.
Rask quickly went to the rookie defenseman to help him shake off the bad break.
“I’m kind of feeling a little upset there,” McAvoy said. “To have (Rask) come over, tap me on the pads and say ‘No worries,’ that meant a lot to me as far as refocusing, and getting back in the game.”
The Bruins had gone ahead, 1-0, on Bergeron’s team-leading 22nd goal of the season at the 4:29 mark.
Bergeron victimized Leafs defenseman Nikita Zaitsev on the play, first by finishing a hit behind Toronto’s net as Zaitsev tried to make a breakout pass, then by interrupting Zaitsev’s second try. The B’s kept the Leafs hemmed in until Danton Heinen (still substituting for Brad Marchand, who served the fourth of a five-game NHL suspension) fed Bergeron the puck for a snipe from the left circle.
Pastrnak, who began the second period by sweating out his penalty for goalie interference, later put the B’s ahead on a power play. His 21st of the season came at 10:38 of the second, after he snapped a sharp-angled shot that hit goalie Frederik Andersen’s left arm and squeezed inside the near post.
The Bruins’ second power-play unit it made it 3-1 before the period ended. David Krejci waited for a seam to open and found Austin Czarnik, who had been recalled from AHL Providence in the morning, at the point, and Czarnik sent the puck down to the right circle. Krug pounded a one-timer from there to the short side for his eighth goal of the season, 3:13 before intermission.