In the Bruins’ latest worst loss of the season, they squandered a three-goal lead and then a one-goal lead in the final minute of regulation before falling to the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime.
Mitch Marner scored his second goal with 51.3 seconds left in OT, beating Jeremy Swayman on a breakaway on a backhand-forehand move for the 5-4 victory for the Leafs.
It was the B’s fourth straight loss (0-2-2), all of them winnable games.
After the B’s blew a 3-0 lead, David Pastrnak scored his second goal of the game at 10:33 of the third period to give the B’s a 4-3 lead. Pastrnak stole a Jake McCabe pass to nowhere in the left corner, walked straight to the front and beat Anthony Stolarz with a pretty roof job for his 30th of the year.
But the B’s couldn’t hold that lead, either. With 46 seconds left and Stolarz pulled for the extra skater, Pontus Holmberg scored the equalizer. Nick Robertson stole the puck from Nikita Zadorov along the boards and fed Holmberg for the goal in traffic.
The Bruins enjoyed a very good first period, jumping out to a 2-0 lead and holding a 15-8 shot advantage while killing off two Toronto power plays.
David Pastrnak wasted all of 29 seconds before extending his point streak to 15 games. On the first shift of the game, Mason Lohrei delivered a perfect stretch pass from just beyond the hash marks in the Boston zone up the middle to Pastrnak in stride at the Toronto blue line. Pastnak moved in alone on Anthony Stolarz and beat him to the blocker side for his 29th goal and 70th point of the season.
Later in the period, Brad Marchand drew a penalty on Matthew Knies and then it was Marchand who doubled the B’s lead on the power play when the bounces went Boston’s way.
On the Bruin PP, Auston Matthews narrowly missed a shorthanded goal when he pinged the post to Jeremy Swayman’s left, then the B’s got another good hop. From his strong side, Pastrnak sent a pass intended for Marchand at the top of the crease. It deflected up, hit Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe in the face and then dropped down for Marchand to sweep it under Stolarz for his 21st at 13:59.
If not for Stolarz, the Leafs would have been facing a three-goal deficit going into the first break. In the waning seconds of the period, Pastrnak beat out an icing and fed Morgan Geekie on the right wing. A sprawling Stolarz made not one, not two but three saves on Geekie to keep the Leafs in striking distance.
But Geekie did eventually push it to 3-0 at 10:00 of the second period on their second power play goal of the game. After McCabe took an interference penalty in front of the net, Geekie scored his 19th of the season. From the goal line, Marchand fed Elias Lindholm in the slot. Stolarz made the stop on Lindholm but the rebound went right to Geekie in his new PP position on the left elbow and this time e buried it.
The B’s didn’t get all the bounces, however. The Leafs scratched back for a goal at 13:52 when Morgan Rielly’s shot went of Parker Wotherspoon’s leg and in.
The Leafs had a chance to make it a one-goal lead when, on another Bruin power play, Lohrei whiffed on the puck and Toronto broke out on a 2-on-0 break. Steven Lorentz kept it for himself and he Swayman not only stoned him but he covered the rebound, preventing David Kampf from getting to it.
Toronto would start the third period with 1:04 of PP time when Oliver Wahlstrom’s offensive zone high sticking penalty nullified the balance of the Leafs’ sixth minor penalty.
The B’s also headed to the third with 11 forwards after Trent Frederic, believed to be one of the B’s trade chips, left the game after getting shaken up by a McCabe hit.
The bad penalty cost the B’s. Fifty-nine seconds into the third, Mitch Marner made it 3-2. Marchand missed a poke check and Marner drifted into the left side of the shot before beating Swayman with a far side snipe.
All of a sudden, the B’s were on their heels and the Leafs were on the attack.
Before the first TV timeout, Swayman was shaken up with a shot bellow the belt. When play resumed, Nick Robertson tied tied it up off the rush, getting behind Andrew Peeke and beating Swayman below the glove from the left wing.