Boston, MA – David Krejci registered a goal and two assists, as the Boston Bruins scored four unanswered goals en route to a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at TD Garden.
Wade Redden added a goal and an assist, while Nathan Horton and Johnny Boychuk each scored once for the fourth-seeded Bruins, who took three of four meetings against the Maple Leafs during the regular season.
Tuukka Rask stopped 19-of-20 shots to help Boston draw first blood in this best-of-seven series.
James van Riemsdyk netted the lone Toronto goal, while James Reimer, making his first playoff appearance between the pipes, allowed all four goals on 40 shots for the Leafs, who qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2004.
"I just thought that we self-destucted," Toronto coach Randy Carlyle said. "I thought we had a good forecheck going early in the hockey game and then we stopped."
Game 2 of this quarterfinal series is scheduled for Saturday in Boston.
Van Riemsdyk's power-play marker 1:54 into the contest staked the Leafs to an early advantage, but the Bruins scored a pair of goals in a 3:28 span late in the period and never looked back.
"It kind of [took] all the noise out of the crowd and that feeling out of the building when they got that first one," said Boston winger Milan Lucic, who finished with two assists. "We knew we were going to have to score at least one goal to win, and we knew if we kept our composure and focused on what we had to do, we were going to get ourselves back in the game."
Redden started the flurry at the 16:20 mark when his blast from just outside the left circle snuck through the left armpit of Reimer and trickled across the goal line to knot the game.
Toronto defenseman Dion Phaneuf was whistled for slashing just 1:35 later, setting up Horton's go-ahead goal.
After van Riemsdyk rang a wrister off the post at the other end, the Bruins charged down the ice before Redden fired a shot from the top of the right circle that Horton re-directed out of mid-air from the low right side to make it 2-1 with 11.7 seconds left in the first.
Boston doubled its edge just past the midpoint of the second when Krejci came up with a loose puck between the circles in the Toronto end before wheeling around and sneaking a quick shot through the five-hole of Reimer for a 3-1 lead at the 10:25 mark.
The Bruins padded their cushion with another goal late in the frame, as Krejci made a nice drop pass to a trailing Boychuk, who skated into a one-timer from the right point that sailed past the glove of Reimer to make it 4-1 with 4:16 left in the second.
Rask made the lead stand by stopping all six shots he faced over the final 20 minutes.
Game Notes
This is the 14th time these Original Six teams have met in the playoffs, but the first since 1974, when Boston swept Toronto in the opening round ... Toronto's seven-season playoff dry spell was its longest in franchise history ... Boston improved to 45-45 in Game 1s of a best-of-seven series, with a 31-15 series record when winning Game 1 ... Horton missed the final five games of the regular season with an upper-body injury.
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