BOSTON – Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves, getting some help from the post to stop a point-blank Auston Matthews shot on Saturday night as the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Jake DeBrusk scored two power-play goals, and Bruins rookie Jonny Beecher scored on his first postseason shot on goal. Brandon Carlo added a goal about a minute after Matthews, who led the NHL with 69 goals this season, caught Swayman away from the crease but banged the puck off the near goalpost.
Trent Frederic added an empty-netter to make it 5-1 with just over two minutes left.
David Kampf scored for Toronto and Ilya Samsonov stopped 23 shots for the Maple Leafs. Toronto scratched No. 2 scorer William Nylander due to an undisclosed injury.
Game 2 is Monday night in Boston before the series shifts to Toronto for Games 3 and 4. If the Bruins follow their pattern from the season, it will be Linus Ullmark in net instead of Swayman.
The Maple Leafs are anxious to end a half-century Stanley Cup drought and snap Canada’s 30-year slump — or at least build on last year, when they won a playoff series for the first time since 2004. But to do it, they’ll have to get past an Original Six nemesis.
Toronto hasn’t beaten the Bruins in the playoffs in six tries since 1959. Boston also swept the regular-season series 4-0.
This was more of the same.
Toronto tried to set a physical tone even before the opening faceoff, when Max Domi tried to provoke Bruins captain Brad Marchand. It didn’t work, with Boston opening a 2-0 lead and then taking advantage of the Leafs penalties to pull away.
Beecher, who played 17 games in the AHL this season, converted a two-on-one with Jesper Boqvist to give Boston the lead 2:26 into the game.
It stayed that way until about five minutes were gone in the second, when Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy fell, leaving no one between Matthews and Swayman. The goalie slid out to try to poke the puck away, but Matthews got there first, wheeled and shot it off the near post.
About a minute later, DeBrusk dug the puck out from behind the Toronto net and fed it to Carlo in the slot for the goal. The Leafs picked up back-to-back penalties, and the Bruins scored on both of them before Kampf made it 4-1 and spoiled the shutout early in the third.
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