Brad Marchand nets winner as Bruins beat Maple Leafs, take 2-1 series lead

TORONTO — The Bruins were facing a situation in which they needed their best players to be the their best players.

One of them stepped up in a big way.

Brad Marchand scored his first goal of the series in the biggest moment so far. Just seconds after the Leafs had tied the game, Marchand sniped a shortside shot over Ilya Samsonov’s glove to make it 3-2. That held up for the game-winner in the 4-2 win, leading to a 2-1 series lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.

With the B’s trying to kill a 6-on-5 situation, John Tavares took a holding penalty with 1:04 remaining.

When the Leafs took control of the puck, they pulled Samsonov again, but Marchand put the nail in the coffin with empty-netter with 35.8 left.

Jeremy Swayman was pretty good, too, turning away 28 of 30 shots for his fifth win against the Leafs this season.

The scoreless first period was an entertaining one nonetheless, with both teams having a couple of decent chances in the hard-hitting opening 20 minutes (the B’s held a 32-28 hit edge, according to the local stat crew).

The B’s got the first break of the night when Simon Benoit shot the puck into the stands on the first shift of the game, but the B’s could not capitalize on the advantage.

Shortly after the B’s power play was up, rookie Mason Lohrei, in his first Stanley Cup playoff game, got tagged with a crosschecking penalty in front of the net on Tyler Bertuzzi. The B’s killed that off well and had the best chance of the two minutes, a clean breakaway for Pavel Zacha that Samsonov just got a piece, the puck dribbling just wide.

The B’s had a great 5-on-5 chance when Charlie McAvoy took the puck behind the net and his wraparound attempt went out to David Pastrnak on the right side. Samsonov was out of the net, but Joel Edmundson stepped in for a goal-saving block.

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