Better Bruins push Maple Leafs to the brink of elimination

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Well, no one could say Scotiabank was quiet at the end of that game.

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And poor special teams and a bad Game 7 history in Boston won’t likely be talking points in Toronto much longer in this series.

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The Maple Leafs were booed off the ice, their season close to cut off before the calendar turns to May 1, down to a win-or-walk away date in Boston on Tuesday. For the second series in a row, they’ve been out-played and face a five-game exit after Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Scotiabank Arena. Other than a three-point night from Auston Matthews in Game 2, Toronto has been outscored 12-4 while Boston waltzed into Bay Street and won both games.

It was also the sixth straight playoff loss on home ice for the Leafs.

The Bruins head back to Massachusetts with a 3-1 lead on the verge of a seventh straight series win over Toronto since 1959. While they twice came back against Boston to force a seventh game in 2013 and ‘18, they ultimately fell when the B’s invoked their Causeway Street advantage. This edition appears to have no intention of letting up.

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Combined with recent regular season head-to-heads, Boston has won 10 of 11, but it’s the bigger picture of teams being down 3-1 that makes it bleak for the Leafs. Teams in that predicament are already limited to a .095 winning percentage (32-338).

Boston’s marquee players, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, once more out-shone their equal or higher-paid counterparts on Toronto’s Core Four, while Jeremy Swayman again handled the Leafs’ top shooters.

The Leafs began with the requisite energy, fueled by a Saturday night crowd, William Nylander’s return, an emotional tribute to the late Bob Cole — and one would have thought by their tenuous situation in the series.

But it resulted in just three shots through 11 minutes. Though Boston took the game’s initial penalty for the first time in the series, nothing resulted on either advantage, including a 4-on-3. When a late Pastrnak minor wasn’t cashed, Toronto fell to 1-for-14 in the series.

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After killing a Boston minor, the Leafs gave up a goal during a fourth-line battle. Defenceman Mason Lohrei chipped the puck away from Ryan Reaves on a breakout to James van Riemsdyk, whose long reach beat TJ Brodie (in his series debut) and Ilya Samsonov. The B’s also blocked 11 shots in the first.

Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe, who is in for an uncomfortable couple of days of public scrutiny, started blending his top six, but Matthews in particular was not effective and not on the bench for the third period. He has missed the past two practice days with an unknown ailment.

Also missing from the Toronto net in the final period was Samsonov, removed for Joseph Woll after three goals on 17 shots. After another pre-game meeting that touched upon not getting suckered into penalties, Max Domi took too many stick shots at Pastrnak for the officials’ liking and was in the box when Marchand buried a one-timer.

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The dagger came in the last minute of the second period, the Leafs frustrated at every turn trying to create offence. Brodie, brought in for Timothy Liljegren for his veteran presence, gambled poorly to poke a puck away as Pastrnak and Marchand converged on him with predictable results and a Pastrnak goal.

Fans who’ve been urged so much of late to match the decibel level at TD Garden had a very negative vibe as the Leafs exited, yet minus Matthews they made a game of it in the third. Mitch Marner found enough room for a nifty backhand deke set up by Ilya Lybushkin (who’d flown back and forth across the continent after the birth of his daughter) and Tyler Bertuzzi.

Joel Edmundson had one of their best cracks at Swayman after sustained pressure, but it was on the same play that Nylander was called for a hold.

With Keefe’s lineup in flux, adding Nylander, still minus Bobby McMann the fallout meant a forward had to be bumped. Calling it one of the hardest decisions he’s had to make, Keefe scratched playoff pick-up Connor Dewar from the fourth line and reassigned Nick Robertson there with Nylander starting on an all-Swedish Tre Kronor line with Pontus Holmberg and Calle Jarnkrok.

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

X: @sunhornby

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