Bruins aim to square series vs. Maple Leafs

The Boston Bruins must turn over the page instead turning over the puck Saturday night if they are to square their first-round playoff series against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Maple Leafs won the opener of the best-of-seven series 4-1 on Thursday night in Boston.

"I think, honestly, if we just manage the puck better, it will allow us to play more to our strength," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "And be heavier, win the battles on the walls. Force (Toronto) to skate and defend. Everyone gets fatigued defending. They lose some of their energy to attack and then forecheck physicality. Our puck management (Thursday) cost us in a lot of different areas of the game."

The Bruins opened the scoring in the first period on a power-play goal by Patrice Bergeron, then watched the Maple Leafs outskate and outplay them the rest of the game.

Mitch Marner scored his second goal of the game on a short-handed penalty shot in the second period to put Toronto into a 2-1 lead. It was Toronto's second playoff goal on a penalty shot in franchise history, the first while short-handed.

"We know we're a fast team in this locker room and I think when we play right it's hard to stop us," Marner said. "We just wanted to make sure we were getting pucks in for the first 10 minutes and make it hard on their D. I think we did a great job of that. I thought all four lines played very well tonight with our D corps. Freddie (goaltender Andersen), again, he was unbelievable."

Jake DeBrusk, whose turnover led to Marner's breakaway, tripped the Leafs right winger from behind that gave Toronto the penalty shot. DeBrusk crashed into the end boards on the play. He said he was not injured, but he did not practice Friday and is a game-time decision.

Veteran David Backes, who did not play Thursday as the Bruins opted for speed with Karson Kuhlman, worked with the third line in practice Friday.

The Bruins won the season series 3-1 with the Maple Leafs and also took their first-round playoff series 4-3 over them last season.

The line of Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak dominated the Maple Leafs in the playoffs last year. Thursday, Toronto countered with the line of John Tavares, Marner and Zach Hyman. Tavares was a key free-agent acquisition in the offseason.

"Tavares is really committed to playing without the puck since he arrived," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "He's really done a good job for us. Obviously, Hyman and Marner are real good players and hard to play against. Our matchup, we had two of them on the back end, just because we knew they'd play lots. (Jake) Muzzin and (Nikita Zaitsev) are real hard to play against and (Ron) Hainsey and (Morgan) Rielly move the puck. I thought they did a good job."

The Bruins have some youth on a defense that is without Kevan Miller (knee) and John Moore (upper body).

"On the back end, we have some younger guys that are still sorting their way through playoffs -- two guys (Connor Clifton and Brandon Carlo), who (were) playing their first (playoff) game," Cassidy said. "(Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy) haven't been around that long, so there could have been some nerves."

What must the Bruins do Saturday that they did not do in Game 1?

"Taking care of the blue lines," Bergeron said. "Playing playoff hockey. ... A lot of that wasn't done (Thursday) -- too many turnovers."

--Field Level Media