In their heart of hearts, Marco Sturm and the Bruins probably would’ve been happy with splitting a home-and-home with the Maple Leafs.

It’s hard to beat the same team two games in a row, and especially when that team is looking to rebound from two straight losses on home ice. But if there’s one thing these Bruins have shown through the first month of the season, it’s that they will fight and claw with reckless abandon in search of points.

And on Tuesday night, that was enough to make the difference in what finished as a 5-3 win over the Leafs, this time on Boston ice.

“We’ve really started to figure out what’s going to be successful for us as a group [and] our identity as a group,” Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm said after the win. “I think if we stick to it, we make it hard for teams.”

With the win, the Bruins are now on their longest single-season win streak since they closed out the record-breaking 2022-23 season on an eight-game win streak.

Here’s a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game…

3rd Star: Nikita Zadorov

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 21: Nikita Zadorov #91 of the Boston Bruins looks on during the first period at TD Garden. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov is more than a hammer on Boston’s top pairing. He’s more than an on and off-ice leader. And he’s even more than a great quote. At this point, Zadorov feels like the total package that this 2025-26 needs to truly embrace the style of play they want to under Sturm.

It almost goes without saying that moving Zadorov up to the Black and Gold’s top pairing opposite Charlie McAvoy has been the fix this team needed, too.

But this home-and-home with Toronto was just another example of the value that Zadorov can bring as the do-it-all, attitude-to-the-max type that can help the Bruins make up for what they may lack elsewhere. On Saturday, Zadorov hammered the Leafs’ Scott Laughton with a clean hit that took Laughton out. And on Tuesday, he did the same to the Leafs’ Auston Matthews.

“It was just a normal play,” Zadorov said of his hit on Matthews. “I didn’t really hit him. I hit [him with] my right shoulder, 99 percent of my hits in the NHL are with my right shoulder. There was really no intention to hurt him. I play hard against top players on the other team. That’s my job.”

The Leafs did not accept that rationale, however, and wanted to get a piece of Zadorov in the third period. Max Domi was ultimately the one who decided to try and make that happen for his team. The 6-foot-7 Zadorov, meanwhile, showed tremendous restraint, and did enough (or didn’t do enough, perhaps) to not be penalized on the skirmish with the Bruins protecting a one-goal lead. The Bruins then immediately scored on the power play drawn by Zadorov and by all means put the Leafs to bed with that two-goal edge in the third.

In addition to drawing the penalty that helped the Bruins put this one away, Zadorov finished this contest with a defense-leading three hits, two shots, and a plus-1 rating. The Bruins also outshot Toronto by a 10-5 mark during Zadorov’s 13 minutes and change of five-on-five deployment.

2nd Star: Hampus Lindholm

Nov 11, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm (27) reacts after scoring a goal against the Maple Leafs at TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images)

Sometimes, you see a stat and you simply have to laugh. And I gotta be honest, I’m beginning to get that way with the Bruins and their record with defenseman Hampus Lindholm in the lineup this season. With Lindholm upright and in action, the Bruins are now 9-1-0 on the season. Without him? They’re 2-6-0. It’s division contender vs. lottery team kind of splits.

Tuesday was yet another step forward for Lindholm and his return as a point-producing, 200-foot ‘D’ for the club, with a goal and an assist in the win.

1st Star: David Pastrnak

Nov 11, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) reacts after scoring a goal against the Maple Leafs during the third period at the TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images)

Bruins superstar David Pastrnak did not expect his teammates to pour over the bench and have a full, team-wide celebration with him after he scored NHL goal No. 400. He was actually worried that the team was going to be assessed a penalty for doing so, to be honest. But when you become just the sixth player in team history to hit that milestone, it’s worth celebrating.

“He’s a special player,” Pastrnak’s linemate, Morgan Geekie, said after the win when asked about Pastrnak hitting 400 goals. “We’re lucky we get to see that day in and day out. Just the way he handles himself on and off the ice, with the weight he has and the weight he carries every day [and] the superstar that he is, you would never know that just talking to him.

“Everybody is an equal to him in here. We all look up to him, and we all learn every day from how he carries himself off the ice.”

But, naturally, Pastrnak did not stop at goal No. 400 in this one, as he came through with goal No. 401 to put Toronto to bed in the third period of what was a one-goal game prior to his second putaway of the evening.