Bruins end their skid, beat Maple Leafs, 5-2

With a 10-day vacation on their horizon, the Bruins decided to start it with smiles on their faces.

After losing three straight games the B’s looked like their old selves on Wednesday in Toronto, using a strong third period to leave the Maple Leafs in their dust in a 5-2 victory.

The B’s got two goals from defensemen, a fourth line goal and two huge third period tallies from Pavel Zacha to take their second straight from the Leafs.

After the B’s took a 3-1 lead early in the third period, the Leafs poured n the pressure and pulled back to within. one at 8:38. A puck deflected off Connor Clifton in the slot and bounced right to Calle Jarnkrok and he scored on a quick put-back behind Linus Ullmark.

After the goal, Leaf pest Michael Bunting got into it with Charlie Coyle behind the net and the two were eventually sent off for matching roughing penalties. Thirty seconds later on the 4-on-4, the B’s had their two-goal lead back. Pavel Zacha maneuvered into the high slot with the puck and, with a clear look at the net, simply beat Ilya Samsonov with wrist shot over the glove.

Then with 7:41 left in regulation, the Czech line made it 5-2. David Pastrnak stole the puck from Rasmus Sandin, fed David Krejci in the left circle and then centerman found a wide open Zacha, who buried his 11th into an open net.

That finally took the life out of Scotiabank Arena. The second-place Leafs, now 13 points behind the B’s, didn’t even bother to pull the goalie.

The first period belonged to the goaltenders as Ullmark and Samsonov both faced numerous high danger chances and both turned them all away.

The B’s had the good chances early, with Brandon Carlo getting thwarted on a weak side pinch and then Connor Clifton was stoned by Samsonov on a clean breakaway.

The B’s got an early power play and, as has been the case too often lately, it stemmed their momentum a tad. They spent more time in the offensive zone than they did on their power plays in previous three games (0-for-12) but they were too cute with their passes and did not get enough pucks to the net.

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