Game 2 Takeaways: Matthews Shines, Leafs Beat Bruins to Even Series

Game 2 takeaways: Matthews shines, Leafs beat Bruins to even up series originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

BOSTON – The drought is over for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They finally won in Boston.

The first-round Stanley Cup playoff series between these Original Six rivals is now tied at one game apiece after the Leafs cruised to a 3-2 victory in Monday night’s Game 2 at TD Garden.

The Leafs had lost eight straight 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 victory.

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 were up 2-1 at the end of the first period on a goal by David Pastrnak. 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 Leafs first lead over Bruins all season when he beat Ullmark on an escape at 12:06 of the third period.

Leafs goaltender 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 made 30 saves.

The Leafs took advantage of home field advantage with the series now moving to Toronto for Game 3 at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night. But before we look at that matchup, here are three takeaways from Bruins-Leafs Game 2.

The Leafs’ stars finally appear

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 finally broke through in the third period by capitalizing on a breakaway scoring opportunity.

Matthews also made an impact in several other areas. He recorded eight shots on net, six digs and was 16-of-23 from the faceoff circle. The Leafs had a 13-4 edge in scoring chances during Matthews’ 17:01 of 5-on-5 ice time. He also had assists on the Leafs’ other two goals in a three-point game.

Marner has yet to score 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 of Tavares and Matthews were a huge step forward for the Maple Leafs. They need these $10-11 million stars to show up consistently to beat the Bruins three more times.

Special teams again play an important role

The Bruins’ power play struggles to close out the regular season have been well documented. They ranked 30th out of 32 teams with a 10.5% success rate over the last two weeks.

But it’s been better in this series.

After scoring twice on the man advantage in Game 1, the Bruins opened the scoring in the first period of Game 2 when Morgan Geekie was credited with his third career postseason goal.

The Bruins were on the power play because Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe crossed Jakub Lauko after the whistle in another display of undisciplined play from Toronto.

Boston’s power play has scored three times in this series and six times overall against the Leafs if you include the four regular season meetings.

The Leafs’ power play also influenced this game. They finally got on the board with the man advantage when John Tavares scored his first goal in the last seven playoff games. The Bruins took five penalties in total, including two too-many penalties that could have easily been avoided.

Toronto ranked seventh in power play during the regular season, and both units are loaded with high-quality offensive talent. The Bruins can’t afford to take so many bad penalties and put that star-studded group on the ice.

The Leafs’ much-maligned penalty kill has performed poorly in this series, but resulted in a huge kill with six minutes remaining in the third period.

Ullmark ‘fantastic’ despite defeat

The Bruins maintained their goaltending rotation by starting Linus Ullmark in Game 2 despite Jeremy Swayman’s outstanding performance in Game 1 victory.

Ullmark’s best run came during a second-period power play for the Leafs. The Swedish goaltender made some brilliant saves on Grade A scoring chances for the Leafs, including this shot from Calle Jarnkrok.

He made another great save to clear Nick Robertson’s shot early in the third period.

Ullmark finished with 30 saves on 33 shots against, which was pretty good considering the Leafs generated 37 scoring chances and 14 high-danger chances. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said in his postgame press conference that Ullmark was “fantastic” and that he had no doubts about the goaltender’s decision.

So what will the Bruins’ plan be for Game 3? Will they return to Swayman? That’s what makes the most sense. Swayman has been incredible against the Leafs this season, with a 4-0-0 record and .967 save percentage, including a 35-save Game 1 win.