In game one of the playoffs for the Maple Leafs and Bruins on Saturday, April 20th, the Maple Leafs fell behind 5-1. The Bruins came in with a strong start and ended with a great 5-1 victory to begin playoffs. David Kampf scored the lone goal for Toronto, Jake DeBrusk scored two goals and Johnny Beecher scored his first-career playoff goal, which had given Boston the first lead. Jeremy Swayman made a total of 35 saves for Boston, and Ilya Samsonov made 19 saves for Toronto. The Maple Leafs and Bruins meet again on Monday back at the TD Garden for game two.
Maple Leafs lineup against the Bruins:
Bertuzzi – Matthews – Domi
Knies – Tavares – Marner
Robertson – Holmberg – Jarnkrok
Dewar – Kampf – Reaves
Rielly – Lyubushkin
Benoit – McCabe
Edmundson – Liljegren
Samsonov
Woll
Bruins lineup against the Maple Leafs:
Marchand – Coyle – DeBrusk
Heinen – Zacha – Pastrnak
Lauko – Geekie – Frederic
Beecher – Boqvist – Maroon
Grzelcyk – McAvoy
Lindholm – Carlo
Shattenkirk – Peeke
Swayman
Ullmark
Johnny Beecher began the scoring early at 17:34 of the first period with his first-career playoff goal when he had finished off a 2-on-1 rush with Jesper Boqvist. This was the only goal scored in the entire opening frame, the Maple Leafs and Bruins heading into the second with Boston in a 1-0 lead.
Another early-in-the-period goal came in the middle frame at 14:13 by Brandon Carlo. He sent a one-timer past Ilya Samsonov off DeBrusk’s pass from below the goal line to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead. Carlo’s goal had just come over a minute after Auston Matthews beat Jeremy Swayman, who had come out of the crease and collected a loose puck with an open net to shoot at, but he sent it off the post. Later into the second at 4:58 on a power play, Jake DeBrusk pushed it to 3-0 with a wrister that beat Samsonov from above the right face-off circle. DeBrusk struck his second on the power play not so long after his first goal to increase Boston’s lead to 4-0 when he knocked in a pass at the top of the crease by Brad Marchand.
David Kampf struck early to pull the Maple Leafs within 4-1 at 18:21 of the final frame. He had received a backhand feed from Connor Dewar, who retrieved a rebound, and Kampf went for a one-timer in the slot. With 2:08 left on the clock, Trent Frederic scored an empty-netter for his first-career playoff goal and for the 5-1 final to wrap up game one.
Johnny Beecher on his first playoff game and his first career playoff goal: “It was crazy. I knew the energy was going to be there in the building… I honestly got chills just sitting on the bench, hearing the crowd and how fired up everybody was to be there,” – “I don’t really know if I expected to score on the first shift there. ‘Patty’ made a great play getting on the corner, and then Boqvist made a great pass. So, I was happy to get it by the goalie there and get the boys started early.”
Brandon Carlo on the win and how they played: “It was great. I think for us, it’s more so about focusing on our process, and I think we did a good job paying attention to the little details tonight. There were times when they had little pushes, but overall, we didn’t get overzealous with anything. I’m happy with the way that we controlled most of the game.”
Mitch Marner on what had been challenging and the key to generating more offense moving forward: “Turnovers to the neutral zone… Obviously, we gave them a very good look at the start of the game there and they capitalized on it. They’re obviously a very skilled team over there when you give them a lot of power plays, and they’re going to start really feeling good about their game. So, something we got to really limit as well,” – “Like I said, not as many turnovers to the neutral zone, we got to be more direct… I thought we started doing a better job at it in the third period, and a little bit throughout the first as well, but in the second, we kind of got away from that. Just from that point on, just trying to find a load of highs or even stuff some throw-ins from the side of the net. So, just try to get bodies there and try to generate a little more from that.”
Auston Matthews on what the biggest issue/issues were for the team: “I can think of a couple things. Obviously, too many penalties… I think you get a team like that, opportunities on the man-advantage, obviously, that many they’re going to capitalize… I thought we started out with a pretty good game and then just little mistakes. They’re a very patient team and they executed on the mistakes that we made. So, it’s a game of inches, you know, we get a taste of what the series is all about here in this game and we got to elevate our game and continue to put our best foot forward and get better.”
Notes:
– Jake DeBrusk also recorded an assist besides the two goals, and both Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy recorded two assists.
Marchand has passed both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci for second in the Bruins’ history in playoff points. He has 130 points in 147 games (53 goals, 77 assists), and only trails Ray Bourque (161 points in 180 games; 36 goals, 125 assists).
– The Bruins have a 38-20 series record all-time when it comes to taking a 1-0 lead in a best-of-7 series, including 29-13 when starting at home.
– William Nylander had missed out on this game as he stayed out with an undisclosed injury.
