Auston Matthews was missing, but the Maple Leafs’ special teams showed up in force Tuesday night.
A hat trick from the electro-shocked power play, combined with a 6-for-6 penalty killing, stymied their arch nemesis, the Boston Bruins, with a 4-0 win at Scotiabank Arena. Anthony Stolarz cleaned up anything his persistent defencemen missed with the 29-save shutout.
The Leafs had lost their previous two games and as well as losing to Boston last year’s playoff series in Game 7 overtime, and had dropped the past seven in regular season, including an overtime setback last month.
The Leafs had ended a protracted power-play slump that dropped them to last in the NHL with a goal in Minnesota using five forwards, but in their three conversions on Tuesday, defenceman Morgan Rielly was added in Matthews’ absence.
Rielly scored Toronto’s first goal, helped by one of many screens set by Matthew Knies. He also had two assists: One when William Nylander walked out of the corner and banked one off Brandon Carlo’s skate, and another off a tip-in by Knies.
Toronto’s second unit nearly added another goal on a third consecutive call, before forced to kill a couple themselves.
Steven Lorentz potted an empty-net goal with 4:02 remaining.
The two goals against Jeremy Swayman were the first the Bruins allowed after consecutive shutouts over Seattle and Philadelphia.
Without Matthews, a morning scratch with what coach Craig Berube said was a nagging upper-body issue, Max Domi was given the major platform as first-line centre. Never mind emulating the absent Rocket Richard Trophy winner, Domi just wanted one goal, having gone zero for 13 coming in without a regular season strike since April 24 of last year. He did get on the game sheet – for a late second-period slash.
Curiously, the Maple Leafs have a strong record of 36-19-2 when playing without Matthews.
It was no shock that Stolarz got the call in net, and he certainly received a wakeup call on an early power-play point drive that caught him high in an unprotected shoulder area. The power play came from Toronto’s first bench minor for too many men this season. But Stolarz shook it off and Mitch Marner quickly drew an even-up call. The Leafs couldn’t complain a few minutes later after the officials huddled to review a major to Max Pacioretty for a body check into the boards that crumpled Andrew Peeke, and the zebras ended up taking the five minutes and the anticipated default minor right off the board.
The Leafs’ top-10 penalty killing unit got a huge hand from Stolarz kicking out a pad to deny Brad Marchand’s one-timer and he made a couple of saves without his stick, which has been slipping from his grip or been knocked away quite often the past two games.
The Leafs now have a couple days off before two more home Atlantic Division matches back-to-back: The Hall of Fame Game on Friday against the Detroit Red Wings, and a visit by the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
X: @sunhornby