Pavel Zacha scored twice in the third period as the Boston Bruins held off the Maple Leafs 5-2 on Wednesday night in Toronto.
Derek Forbort and Brandon Carlo both had goals in the second period as Boston (39-7-5) snapped a three-game winless streak. A.J. Greer also scored in the final period.
Mitch Marner scored on the power play, his 19th goal of the season, for Toronto (31-13-8). Calle Jarnkrok had a goal in the third to keep the Maple Leafs in the game.
Ilya Samsonov stopped 24 shots in his eighth consecutive game in net for Toronto.
Samsonov was 5-1-1 over his last seven starts with a .925 save percentage and 2.24 goals-against average.
WATCH | Zacha’s 2-goal night helps Bruins beat Maple Leafs in Toronto:
Two third period goals by Boston’s Pavel Zacha gave the Bruins a 5-2 win over Toronto Wednesday night.
He was tested twice in the first period of play, including a shot from the slot from David Pastrnak, who leads Boston with 38 goals.
Pastrnak also had the best chance of the first period with 1:17 to go, slipping between two Leafs defencemen and seemingly dekeing Samsonov out of position. But the Toronto goaltender slid across his crease and got a pad out to stop the shot from in close.
Despite all of Boston’s scoring opportunities, Toronto outshot the Bruins 14-13 in the first 20 minutes of play.
Forbort snapped home a short-handed goal 6:57 into the second. He was sent a backhand pass from the boards by Charlie Coyle as he skated into the slot unmarked.
Marner replied on the power play 2:28 later. After a long leading pass off the boards from Samsonov, Marner skated through the left faceoff circle and snapped a shot past Ullmark to tie it 1-1.
Sammy serving, again 🍽 <a href=”https://t.co/bK501pSrs0″>pic.twitter.com/bK501pSrs0</a>
—@MapleLeafs
Carlo re-established Boston’s one-goal lead a little over three minutes later, taking a pass from Hampus Lindholm and deflecting it past Samsonov from a wide angle.
Early in the third, Toronto centre David Kampf had his arm around a hard-charging Greer and let go of his own stick to avoid taking a penalty. Greer took advantage of the opening and snapped a shot from the hash marks past Samsonov to make it 3-1 for the Bruins.
Jarnkrok swatted in a rebound off of Ullmark’s pads after a shot from Mark Giordano deflected out to the slot at 8:38. As the Leafs were celebrating the goal, Toronto’s Michael Bunting got into a scrap with Coyle behind the Bruins net and both received roughing penalties.
Jarnkrok’s goal was still being announced over the public address system when Zacha shed his defender and wired a shot from the point past Samsonov to restore Boston’s two-goal lead.
Zacha put away his second of the night 3:11 later. Standing just a few feet from Samsonov’s crease, he dropped to a knee to one-time a pass from David Krejci into the net.
It was both teams’ final game before the all-star break.
Toronto won’t play again until Feb. 10 when the Maple Leafs travel to Columbus to face the Blue Jackets.