Game 2 takeaways: Matthews shines, Leafs beat Bruins to even series originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
BOSTON — The drought is over for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They’ve finally won in Boston.
The first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series between these Original Six rivals is now even at a game apiece after the Leafs earned a 3-2 victory in Monday night’s Game 2 at TD Garden.
The Leafs had lost eight consecutive games to the Bruins and hadn’t won in this building since March 29, 2022. But Toronto showed impressive resilience, overcoming 1-0 and 2-1 deficits en route to a much-needed win.
The Bruins opened the scoring at 10:18 of the first period when Morgan Geekie cashed in on the power play. The Leafs tied the score just 14 seconds later when Max Domi beat Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark in front of the net. The Bruins went ahead 2-1 late in the first period on a David Pastrnak goal. But the Leafs didn’t go away. John Tavares scored Toronto’s first power-play goal of the series in the second period to even the score at two.
Auston Matthews gave the Leafs their first lead over the Bruins all season when he beat Ullmark on a breakaway at 12:06 of the third period.
Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov played much better in Game 2 than he did in the series opener. He made 27 saves. Ullmak made his series debut for Boston and had 30 saves.
The Leafs have taken the home-ice advantage with the series now shifting to Toronto for Game 3 at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night. But before we look ahead to that matchup, here are three takeaways from Bruins-Leafs Game 2.
Leafs stars finally show up
The Leafs’ superstar forwards — Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Mitch Marner — were all held off the scoresheet in Game 1. They played much better in Game 2.
Tavares scored on the power play with a turnaround shot with 1:34 left in the second period.
Matthews hadn’t scored a goal in six consecutive playoff games, but he finally broke through in the third period by capitalizing on a breakaway scoring opportunity.
Matthews made an impact in several other areas, too. He tallied eight shots on net, six hits and went 16-of-23 in the faceoff circle. The Leafs had a 13-4 edge in scoring chances during Matthews’ 17:01 of 5-on-5 ice time.
Marner still hasn’t tallied a point in this series, and William Nylander — who scored 40 goals in the regular season — has yet to play in this series due to an undisclosed injury. But the efforts from Tavares and Matthews were a huge step forward for the Maple…