Recap: Stolarz, special teams lift Leafs to 4-0 win over Bruins

It was a power play vs. a powerless play.

In the preview for tonight’s game, I noted my surprise at the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs power play was, statistically, one of the worst in the NHL on the young season.

The Leafs shrugged off those power play woes on Tuesday night, cashing in three times with the man advantage to beat the Bruins, 4-0.

Toronto got two power play goals in quick succession in the second period, then tacked on another late in the third and an empty-netter to put a cherry on top.

The Leafs win marked the first time they’ve defeated the Bruins in the regular season since November 5, 2022.

Anthony Stolarz came up big for the Leafs in this game, making 29 saves, including a couple of the highlight reel variety.

To the highlights lowlights!

Andrew Peeke would leave the game after this hit from Max Pacioretty, with the team ruling him out with an upper-body injury.

The play was originally called a five-minute major on Pacioretty, but was reduced to no penalty after review.

With Nikita Zadorov off for interfering with Pacioretty, Morgan Reilly got the Leafs on the board with a power play point shot through traffic midway through the second period. 1-0 Leafs.

David Pastrnak would take an offensive zone penalty about 30 seconds after the goal, only to see his buddy William Nylander benefit from a lucky bounce and make it 2-0 Leafs just over a minute after the Reilly goal.

After the Bruins failed to convert on a few power play chances in the late second and early third period, the Leafs cashed in on the power play (again) late in the third, with Matthew Knies making it 3-0 Leafs.

The Bruins would pull Swayman for the extra attacker with just under five minutes left in the game, only to see Toronto tack on an empty-netter about 10 seconds later to add insult to injury.

Bruins lose, 4-0!

Game notes

• The win was Toronto’s first regular season victory over the Bruins in the last ten meetings between the two teams.
• As Ty Anderson illustrates, offense has been hard to come by for the Bruins of late: tonight marked the third time in their last eight games that the B’s failed to put a goal on the board.
• This game featured a whopping 13 power play opportunities between the two teams — it wasn’t exactly a smooth, free-flowing affair. There was also a set of matching minors, putting the penalty minute total for the night at 30.
• It looked innocuous enough at the time, but there was a “shoot yourself in the foot” moment early in the game that was a harbinger of things to come: the Bruins had a power play about 2:30 into the game, when the puck came to Charlie McAvoy off of a face-off. With Mitch Marner closing him down, McAvoy elected to try to handle the puck instead of tossing it into the corner. He lost control and ended up taking Marner down, taking a penalty in the process. The Leafs didn’t score on their abbreviated PP, but the moment served as another example of doing the little things to make your life more difficult — a problem for the B’s so far this season.
• While the Leafs made the most of their power play opportunities, the Bruins came up empty in six opportunities. To be frank, they didn’t exactly look super threatening during any of those opportunities either.
• You can live with penalties here and there, but the two that led to the Leafs’ second period goals were of the “extremely frustrating” variety. The Zadorov penalty came as a result of miscommunication between Jeremy Swayman and his defensemen, then the Pastrnak one was a just a silly high sticking penalty, the kind that seems to happen when a guy is fighting it a bit at the moment.
• It seems like the refs eventually got the call right with the Peeke/Pacioretty play. It looked like the referee outside the zone was the one who called the penalty, and he likely thought there was head contact. Replay shows that wasn’t the case. It’s hard to say for sure what’s ailing Peeke, but it might be his shoulder or ribs?
• It would be a stretch to say Stolarz stole this game for Toronto, as the Leafs deserved to win on the balance of play. However, Stolarz made a couple of big stops to keep things firmly in Toronto’s control, including a big one on Justin Brazeau in the second period.
• Tyler Johnson skated 13:51 in his regular season debut for the B’s. He was credited with one shot on goal and one hit on the night.

The B’s are back in action on Thursday night, when they’ll host the Calgary Flames.

Calgary beat Montreal, 3-2 in OT, on Tuesday night.