Toronto Maple Leafs score big to beat Boston Bruins 6-5

(Photo by Kevin Sousa/Icon Sportswire)

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Toronto Maple Leafs score big to beat Boston Bruins 6-5. Here is the game summary and highlights from February 4, 2017.

 

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FINAL

TORONTO

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BOSTON

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GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY


ON THE SCORESHEET

William Nylander registered his first career hat trick with a goal at 11:15 of the first period and a pair of goals in the second period coming at 9:09 and 10:17. With three goals, Nylander tied his NHL single-game high for points with three.

James van Riemsdyk recorded his 18th goal of the season at 8:31 of the second period and later added his 19th goal of the season at 18:24 of the third period. He has four goals in three games vs. Boston this season.

Connor Brown had the primary assist on Nylander’s third goal and added the fifth Toronto goal of the game in the third period. Brown has four points (3-1-4) in three games against Boston this season.

Auston Matthews picked up assists on Nylander’s first and third goals, as well as Brown’s third period goal. With tonight’s performance, Matthews established a new single-game high for assists in a game (3) and secured his third multi-assist game of the season.

Nazem Kadri registered the primary assist on Nylander’s first period goal. Kadri has four assists over his last five games.

Mitch Marner notched his 30th and 31st assists of the season with helpers on each of van Riemsdyk’s goals. Marner is the first Maple Leaf rookie to have 30 or more assists in a season since Kyle Wellwood (34) in 2005-06.

Tyler Bozak had the primary assist on van Riemsdyk’s third period goal, his 20th assist of the season. The assist was Bozak’s 300th career NHL assist.

Frederik Andersen stopped 36 shots in tonight’s win.

SHOTS FIRED

The Maple Leafs were outshot by the Bruins by a 41-26 margin in all situations and by a 27-22 edge at 5-on-5.

Boston had a 79-50 lead in shot attempts in all situations and a 55-42 lead in shot attempts at 5-on-5.

William Nylander and James van Riemsdyk led the Maple Leafs with four shots on goal.

Nikita Zaitsev registered a team-high seven shot attempts.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

The Maple Leafs are 12-9-6 on the road this season.

Toronto’s all-time record is 272-285-98-10 in 665 games against Boston and 103-176-47-7 in 333 games played in Boston.

Toronto is 17-9-4 against the Eastern Conference this season and 12-4-2 against the Atlantic Division.

The Maple Leafs continue their road trip on Feb. 6 at the New York Islanders.

MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS

Faceoff Wins

9 (Bozak)

Faceoff Win Percentage

47% (Kadri, Smith)

Hits

4 (Gardiner, Martin)

Blocked Shots

6 (Polak)

Takeaways

3 (Matthews)

TOI

25:41 (Gardiner)

Power Play TOI

2:08 (Gardiner, Komarov, Matthews)

Shorthanded TOI

5:40 (Polak)

Shifts

33 (Gardiner, Rielly, Zaitsev)

5-on-5 Shot Attempt Percentage

60.6% (Carrick – 20 for, 13 against)

OF NOTE…

James van Riemsdyk played in his 300th game as a Maple Leaf tonight.

At 2:17 of the first period in tonight’s game, Toronto requested a Coach’s Challenge to review whether Boston was off-side prior to David Pastrnak’s goal. After reviewing, NHL Hockey Operations staff was inconclusive in determining whether Boston was off-side prior to the goal. The original call stood – good goal Boston Bruins.

Toronto is 5-12-4 when their opponent scores first this season.

The Maple Leafs are now 7-5-2 when tied after one period and 19-1-6 when leading after two periods.

Toronto has a 15-7-3 record when outshot by their opponent.           

Maple Leafs rookies combined for four goals and seven assists tonight and have amassed 195 points (74 goals, 121 assists) in 50 games this season.

UPCOMING GAMES:

Monday, Feb. 6 at New York Islanders, 7:00 p.m. (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)

Tuesday, Feb. 7 vs. Dallas Stars, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

Thursday, Feb. 9 vs. St. Louis Blues, 8:00 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, TSN 1050)

Saturday, Feb. 11 vs. Buffalo Sabres, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, FAN 590)

Tuesday, Feb. 14 vs. New York Islanders, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

POSTGAME QUOTES:

HEAD COACH MIKE BABCOCK

On tonight’s game:

It went in for us, it went in for them. In the end, [Andersen] was able to make enough saves at the end and we were able to get a win. I’ve been in a number of these over the years where your club doesn’t win in a while and it’s usually ugly when you finally do win. That was the ugly one and we appreciate winning.

On Nylander’s play tonight:

He shot it in the net. We’ve just got to bring Pastrnak on the road with us all the time, take him to every rink. [Nylander] always wants to be better than 88 so we’ve just got to get a number 88 on every team and he’ll be unbelievable.

On the feeling on the bench when Boston tied the game at 4-4:

They just wanted to win. We’ve talked a lot about that, you’ve got to dig in and find a way. You know, after – what were we up in the second period? [4-1]. So, we were up 4-1 and we give it back to make it 4-3, but if I told you before the game you were going to be up one goal going into the third, you’d be in a great spot. So, let’s just play the game. Obviously when they made it 4-4 we had to dig in and find a way to get it done.

On Martin’s fight in the second period:

He came back [after the fight], but I don’t like the situation. McQuaid is a tough kid, [Martin]’s a tough kid. McQuaid has a visor on his helmet, [Martin] has no visor. I don’t like that scenario but it’s just the way it is. To me it’s not fair, but Matt is a really good teammate, he does a lot for our young guys and it’s good that he’s okay.

FREDERIK ANDERSEN (36 SAVES, WIN)

On tonight’s game:

It was one of those where you’ve got to keep battling and find a way and maybe you feel it doesn’t really go your way, but you’ve just got to keep working. I think we came right back after they tied it up a couple of times and got back to playing in their end, got the puck to their net and obviously it went in. That was nice to see.

On how the new goalie pants were tonight:

I don’t know. I’ll look at the video a little bit and see how to improve some things. Just get better, get them broken more and more in.

On if he felt impeded by the new equipment:

No, not really. Maybe restricting a little bit moving around but that’s how it is with new gear. I’m sure I’ll focus on getting that fixed.

On Boston’s play at the crease:

They made some really good plays around the net… There are a lot of shooters on their blueline and they were able to score a couple goals.

AUSTON MATTHEWS (3 ASSISTS, 3 TAKEAWAYS)

On the team’s resilience in tonight’s win:

It’s huge. It was a really back and forth game, a lot of penalties that kind of cost us. All in all I thought we played a really solid game tonight. It was a really good bounce back from the last three.

On his line’s play tonight:

We were working. Tonight we kind of got some good bounces for sure so that helps. Like you said, we were resilient tonight, all four lines and we really took it to them. They’re obviously a very experienced team, they were able to catch back up, but it’s nice to get the two points.

On Nylander scoring his first career hat trick:

It’s definitely a night you remember for sure. He was all over the puck, he was skating, he has obviously got an unbelievable shot, a really good release, and he was able to utilize them on all three goals. It was a big game for him.

WILLIAM NYLANDER (FIRST NHL HAT TRICK, 4 SHOTS)

On scoring a hat trick against Boston and childhood friend David Pastrnak:

It’s something I never thought would happen when we were playing like little kids back home. It’s pretty cool.

On the rookies combining for 11 points tonight:

We want to keep playing well. We need to keep winning here down the stretch, so we want to keep building upon what we’ve been able to do so far.

On if he and Pastrnak traded words during the game:

No, not really, just talked a little bit about it.

On if he has bragging rights over Pastrnak:

Oh yeah, for sure.

On winning two games in Boston this season after tough road games there in the past:

Yeah, I think for many guys it’s their first series against Boston during the year. It’s fun, we want to keep doing it.

MORGAN RIELLY (33 SHIFTS, 22:18 TOI)

On getting the win tonight:

It feels good. We came in and we knew it was a big game, not only in the standings but we wanted to get back on the right track and get in the win column. It was a little bit of back and forth, a little more than we would have liked, but I think we showed good resilience to come through and keep pushing and end up getting the win.

On tonight as a vintage Maple Leafs vs. Bruins game:

Yeah, that seems to be it. They’re usually pretty exciting games, a lot of back and forth, a lot of offence. I think that our gameplan isn’t necessarily get into run-and-gun matches with teams like that, we want to play more structured. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to get the win. We had guys – Willy [Nylander] played great, [van Riemsdyk] played great and when guys are able to answer the bell like that, it’s great for our team.

On playing through pain tonight:

We’re all battling. This time of year guys want to be able to help the team and stay in the lineup. We have a great training staff here in Toronto that have been doing a great job with our guys. We’re all working hard and doing our best.

JAMES van RIEMSDYK (2 GOALS, 300th GAME AS A MAPLE LEAF)

On tonight’s game:

I think we stuck together as a team. You saw it out there. You see it with the fight where it was a hit we didn’t like necessarily, [Martin] sticks up for his teammate and we keep battling the whole game. It’s a little bit of a hectic game but we stuck together and kept playing the whole way.

On the game-winning goal:

I was rolling up there and there was a lot of traffic in front. I kind of saw the goalie trying to find the puck and I think he thought I was going to throw it to the point. I just tried to throw it on net and thankfully it went in.

On his second period goal:

I thought I was going to be in trouble for not getting back on the backcheck because I fell first and the puck ended up finding me there. I was able to slide it in.

On tonight’s win snapping a losing streak:

I think in times like this you’ve got to stick together as a team and I think we did that for the whole game. We played hard, kept coming back when things didn’t go our way. It was good.

On the team showing maturity in the win:

Yeah, that’s part of the process. We’ve got a lot of firepower up front and there’s going to be swing in the games. The good teams know how to handle adversity well and it was a good response game from us. We have to continue to play that way.

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