Bruins Cruise to Game One Win Over Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins opened up their first-round playoff series on Saturday night at the famous TD Garden in Boston, which has been host to countless classic playoff moments. The Bruins swept the season series between these two Atlantic Division rivals, and the opening game of this series was more of the same as the regular season. Boston cruised to a 5-1 victory in dominating fashion; here is how it happened.
The first period had just one goal, and it was scored by John Beecher of the Bruins just 2:26 into the game. While the score was only 1-0 after one period, the Bruins showcased their dominance in time of possession for the majority of the frame. They would turn that time of possession domination into goals in the second period, where Boston exploded for three goals to break the game wide open. The first tally of the period was scored by defenseman Brandon Carlo off assists from Jake DeBrusk and Hampus Lindholm. Then Debrusk scored some of his own as he would go on to score two power-play goals that were less than three minutes apart from each other in the last five minutes of the period. The 4-0 deficit going into the third period was ultimately too much for the underdog Maple Leafs to overcome. They attempted a comeback with a quick goal to start the third period by David Kampf; however, they were unable to build any momentum off that goal and eventually let up an empty net goal scored by Trent Frederic to put the nail in the coffin officially.
Boston won this game with both their time of possession dominance and their ability to execute on the power play. Toronto actually outshot Boston 36-24, but they gave Boston far too many opportunities with five different power plays. Toronto also had three power-play chances of their own, but they did not capitalize on any of them. It will be crucial for Toronto moving forward in this series to avoid giving Boston extra opportunities if they want to pull off the first-round upset. Game two will be on Monday in Boston in what feels like a must-win game for the underdog Maple Leafs, who do not want to dig themselves an early 2-0 hole.
