Coming off a stretch in which they bagged 8 points in their last five games, capped by an electrifying 4-2 win in Detroit Saturday, the Bruins looked zapped against the Maple Leafs.
“I thought we tried our best to talk about it before the game, like what this spot would be like: Coming off a really emotional win and playing against a team that obviously is not in the spot that we’re in,” said Charlie McAvoy, who scored a third-period goal to cut the deficit to 3-2. “We talked about it all day today that we couldn’t show up flat and we still did. So, yeah, it just wasn’t good enough for us.”
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The Bruins (39-24-8) were sloppy all night, consistently committing turnovers against a Maple Leafs team (30-29-13) that played with more emotion than their hosts and got a solid effort between the pipes from Anthony Stolarz (18 saves).
“Yeah, we were just flat. I mean, didn’t have emotions against the Toronto Maple Leafs, that’s on us for sure,” said Nikita Zadorov, who was hit with a pair of majors — one for boarding and one for fighting. “Got to be better than that. I mean, it’s important points for us at home and to drop it like this, it’s embarrassing.”
The Bruins will have no time to lick their wounds after this one as they will face the Atlantic Division-leading Sabres Wednesday night in Buffalo.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s the best part of being in this league. You can redeem yourself the next day,” said Zadorov, who started his career in Buffalo as the 16th overall pick in 2013. “It’s a big battle. We got smacked last time we were there [a 4-1 loss Dec. 27] … They’re a good hockey team. We possibly see them down stretch in the playoffs as well, so I think it’s a big divisional rivalry for us, for sure.”
The tempo was terrific across the first 20 minutes. It didn’t to seem to matter that the Bruins were jockeying for playoff position while Leafs were jockeying for draft position.
The Bruins grabbed a 1-0 lead on perhaps the prettiest goal of Elias Lindholm’s Boston tenure.
After winning a puck battle down low in his own end, Lindholm took off down ice. Henri Jokiharju shuttled the puck up ice to spark a two-on-one. Morgan Geekie collected it and whipped it to a streaking Lindholm, who sniped it to the top shelf over Stolarz’s blocker.
It was the 14th of the season — and second in two games — for Lindholm. Geekie’s assist was his fourth helper in the last two games.
The second period, however, was one the Bruins would have liked to forget.
The Bruins wasted three power plays and gave up a shorthanded goal, a power-play goal, and the lead.
The Maple Leafs took three straight penalties in the first eight minutes of the period, but the power play continued to sputter. When it did find its footing, Stolarz was brilliant, twice robbing Geekie, including on a save off a goalmouth feed from David Pastrnak.
With old friend Brandon Carlo off for interference, the Bruins allowed the shorty.
Mason Lohrei couldn’t control a partially blocked pass from Lukas Reichel and Matthew Knies was able to angle around the Bruin defenseman and break in alone on Jeremy Swayman (31 saves).
Maple Leafs left wing Matthew Knies (23) beat Jeremy Swayman for a shorthanded goal that tie it, 1-1, in the second period.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
Knies went forehand/backhand and lifted one to the top shelf over Swayman’s blocker for the equalizer.
The Bruins gave up another shorthanded chance on their next power play, but Swayman denied Steven Lorentz with the blocker.
Toronto took a 2-1 lead with a four-on-three power play goal as Jokiharju (hooking) and Zadorov (boarding major) sat in the box.
Max Domi exploited a blown coverage and walked in from the right circle and tucked one between Swayman’s pads for his 11th on the season.
Max Domi’s power-play goal at 18:08 of the second period gave the Maple Leafs the lead for good, 2-1, over the Bruins.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
“We were OK in the first,” said Elias Lindholm. “The second period, our power play was terrible. It killed the momentum and obviously they got way more chances and momentum from that. So yeah, our special teams were not good enough tonight.”
William Nylander scored early in the third to stretch it to 3-1, before McAvoy deflected a Pastrnak one-timer past Stolarz to pull within one, 3-2, at 5:08.
Knies buried an empty-netter with 22 seconds left to seal it.
“I think [we] just didn’t bring it today,” said Bruins coach Marco Sturm. “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen today. We can talk about whatever you want, but it was just overall, it was just not, unfortunately, not good enough.”
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.