The Boston Bruins will try to find their scoring touch when they complete a three-game road trip Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Goals were scarce for Boston, which lost the first two games — 3-1 to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday and 2-1 to the New York Rangers on Thursday.
The Bruins are 1-3 with just eight goals over their last four games. They were tied for 26th in the league with 103 goals through Thursday, an average of 2.58 per game. Toronto was tied for 13th with 120 (3.08 average).
“It’s hard,” said David Pastrnak, who assisted on Boston’s lone goal against the Rangers. “Obviously, sometimes you want to look at positives, but we’re 0-2 on this road trip and it’s tough to look at some positives right now. We’re going to regroup. We have a big division game, so we flip the switch and focus on Toronto.”
Toronto and Boston have split two games this season, with the home team winning each time.
Bruins coach Joe Sacco liked his team’s effort against New York.
“I thought the guys tried to execute the game plan,” Sacco said. “I feel like we’re trying to make a better play all the time in situations where we can put the puck to the net and create some more opportunities that way.
“But you score one goal (in each of) the last two games, it’s tough. It puts a lot of pressure on your team defense. We’re still defending fairly well, but we’ve got to find a way to be more consistent offensively.”
Elias Lindholm scored in the second period for Boston to pull his team within one.
“We had chances to score more than one goal and their goalie (Jonathan Quick) made some good saves,” Lindholm said. “We just have to find ways to put it in the back of the net. We had a lot of chances last game, too. It’s not good enough to score one goal a game.”
The Maple Leafs completed a home-and-home sweep of the New York Islanders on Thursday with a 2-1 road win.
Bobby McMann scored both goals for Toronto on Thursday, with the tiebreaking winner coming at 17:01 of the third period on a power play.
“I liked our game. I thought we played with a lot of pace,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “It was a hard game. I thought the Islanders were good. I thought they were difficult to play against, but I thought we did a good job. Our goalie was good. The first period, we gave up some chances off three odd-man rushes, and he was there.”
Toronto has now won three of its last four games and eight of its last 12.
“It was a pretty tight game,” said goaltender Joseph Woll, who made 32 saves. “There were different momentum swings in it. And the last couple of times we played these guys it has been pretty tight.”
With 12 goals this season, McMann has six goals and four assists in his past nine games.
“He’s obviously got a great shot,” Woll said. “It was on display tonight. He’s got a pretty quick, sneaky release, and it comes off pretty heavy. So, it was good to see him get some goals.”
Toronto captain Auston Matthews (upper-body injury) missed a sixth straight game but took part in the optional skate on Thursday and could return this weekend. After facing the Bruins, the Leafs host the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.
–Field Level Media
