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Bruins take 3-1 series lead with Game 4 win |
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Ty Anderson
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By sticking with Jeremy Swayman for his second straight start Saturday night in Toronto, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery bucked the trend he had established for his netminders for well over two full months.
Swayman’s performance through two starts, with a playoff-best .955 save performance, in this series may have been reason enough. The Bruins and Maple Leafs were also given an extra day of rest between Games 3 and 4 as a means to get Game 4 on Hockey Night in Canada, which truly only benefitted Swayman, who has started more sets of two games in four nights than two games in three nights in 2023-24.
There was also the ‘mental’ aspect that Montgomery and the Bruins had started to acknowledge as potentially real for Swayman in this head-to-head with the Maple Leafs after five straight wins on the year, especially in the aftermath of Max Domi accidentally on purpose bumping Swayman in Game 3.
But no matter the reasoning or rationale, it was a decision and challenge that Swayman and the Bruins not only accepted but downright dominated by way of a 3-1 final to give the Bruins a 3-1 series lead heading back to Boston.
In a game that kicked off with the Bruins and Maple Leafs trading failed power-play opportunities, the Bruins upped their pressure — specifically in the attacking zone and against Toronto fourth-line wing Ryan Reaves — to open things up for their first goal of the evening on Ilya Samsonov.
As Reaves handled a puck along his wall, the Bruins converged on him with both Trent Frederic and a strong activation from Mason Lohrei and forced Reaves into a downright ugly turnover that landed on the stick of James van Riemsdyk and then through Samsonov for Boston’s first goal of the night, scored at the 15:09 mark of the first frame.
The goal was good for van Riemsdyk’s first since a two-goal outing back on Feb. 17, and also came with the first Stanley Cup Playoffs point of Lohrei’s NHL career. Coming in just his second career playoff game, Lohrei became the fifth Bruins rookie defender since 2010 to record his first playoff point in his second game or earlier, and the first since Kevan Miller.
Up by one through two minutes of play, the Bruins made Max Domi pay for what was a downright careless crosschecking penalty against the Bruins’ David Pastrnak, and with the strike from chief Toronto villain Brad Marchand.
On what was a beautiful passing sequence, with some loose puck battles won along the way, the Bruins hit a wide-open Marchand for a clean look on Samsonov that was ripped into the Toronto cage for a lead-doubling strike.
The goal was Marchand’s 56th career playoff goal, breaking him out of a tie with Cam Neely for the most in team history.
But Marchand and the Bruins were not done with their second-period scoring.
As the Leafs’ Jake McCabe inexplicably stepped up on a hit on Pavel Zacha in the waning moments of the period, it took all of a second for McCabe’s decision to backfire, as it opened the door for a two-on-one chance for Marchand and David Pastrnak, and with Pastrnak fed by Marchand for an easy goal on Samsonov.
And while the Leafs kicked off the third with a change in goal, with Joseph Woll summoned into the crease for his first action of the series, the period also came with some downright awful news for Toronto, with Auston Matthews ruled out for the remainder of the evening with an undisclosed issue later revealed to be related to an illness.
But even with Matthews done for the night, the Leafs made their third-period push, which kicked off with the first goal of the series for Mitch Marner, scored with just over 14 minutes left in the third period.
That would be as close as the Matthews-less Leafs got in this one, however, as the Bruins buckled down with some key shot blocks and sound road defense, while Swayman finished with 25 saves in the B's net to help lead Boston to a 3-1 series lead.
A Boston block party
Given the way the Leafs had owned the puck for large stretches of the first two games of this series, coming back to Boston with a 3-1 series lead or 2-2 split at the very worst was going to require the Bruins to 'up' their details. And the Bruins did exactly that during their two-game run in Toronto, with 24 blocked shots in Game 3 and a 27-block outing in Game 4.
The B's 27 blocks in Game 4 were their second-most in any game during their 86-game season to date between the regular season and 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, trailing on a 29-block game against the Capitals back on Mar. 30.
And just about everybody got in on this block party for the Bruins, with 14 of the B’s 18 skaters in this contest credited with at least one block.
Bruins 'rotation' comes into focus with Game 4 decision
Speaking with the media on Friday, B's head coach Jim Montgomery said his club was 'sticking with the plan' in goal for Game 4. Of course, nobody knew exactly what that plan was, but with Game 4 behind him and after consecutive starts for Jeremy Swayman for the first time in over two months, Montgomery explained a bit of what went into that decision.
For Montgomery, the plan was always to split the first two games of the series between Swayman and Linus Ullmark. Then, from there, the Bruins were going to ride the hot hand.
And Swayman has indeed been that hot hand for Boston.
After stopping 28-of-30 in his Game 3 win, Swayman started hot once again in Game 4, and saved his best for the third period, when the Leafs had a massive push on his goal. And as has been the case in all three starts to date, Swayman did a tremendous job of tracking the play through the high-danger areas of the rink, and refused to give Toronto any hope.
Through three games, Swayman has posted a .957 save percentage and a high-danger save percentage of .867.
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