David Pastrnak became the sixth 400-goal scorer in Bruins history as part of a two-goal, one-assist performance, leading Boston to a 5-3 win over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.
Pastrnak’s milestone tally came 49 seconds into the second period. It capped a three-goal run for Boston across the first two frames and stood as the deciding goal in Boston’s seventh consecutive victory.
Hampus Lindholm had a goal and an assist, Pavel Zacha and Alex Steeves also scored and Charlie McAvoy had two assists for the Bruins, who were 3-for-6 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.
Boston’s Jeremy Swayman (29 saves) earned his fourth straight win.
Steven Lorentz, Bobby McMann and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for Toronto, which has lost twice to Boston during a three-game skid.
The Maple Leafs lost forward Auston Matthews (lower-body injury) following a hit from Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov in the second period.
Toronto goaltender Anthony Stolarz allowed three goals on 10 first-period shots before being pulled for a second straight start, but this time due to an upper-body ailment. Dennis Hildeby recorded 19 stops in relief.
After Stolarz made back-to-back early saves on Marat Khusnutdinov, the Bruins opened a 3-1 lead with the help of two power-play goals in the first. Zacha started the run at 4:27, redirecting Pastrnak’s wrist shot while coming through the middle.
At 6:41, Toronto leveled the score on its first shot. Lorentz took the puck away from McAvoy on an attempted breakout and slid to the center to score an unassisted short-handed goal.
Lindholm netted Boston’s second consecutive man-up goal at 9:32, snapping a shot from the left point past Stolarz through a Khusnutdinov screen.
Steeves capped a busy opening period by scoring his first Bruins goal with 2:37 left. The New Hampshire native and former Maple Leaf drove down the left wing and slipped a shot five-hole on Stolarz.
Pastrnak then made it a 4-1 game. After Morgan Geekie tipped McAvoy’s lead pass, the star winger deked Hildeby and tucked the puck inside the post.
McMann brought Toronto within 4-2 when he scored just after a 5-on-3 became a 5-on-4 with 1:02 left in the middle period. Max Domi pulled up near the half-wall after driving down the wing, where he passed to McMann, who cut inside and put home a backhand.
Toronto slimmed its deficit to one when Ekman-Larsson’s long shot sailed through traffic and past Swayman 3:32 into the third. Hildeby’s save on Morgan Geekie at the doorstep minutes later held that score until Pastrnak buried No. 401 off a Mark Kastelic feed on a power play at 9:48.
–Field Level Media
