Auston Matthews turns it up with three-point night as Maple Leafs slay Bruins in Game 2 (2024)

In his 52nd NHL playoff game, the same amount that vaulted Doug Gilmour to the Maple Leafs’ franchise lead with 77 playoff points, it was high time for Auston Matthews to step up this spring.

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Toronto’s season likely would be toast if it came home trailing 2-0 to playoff nemesis Boston, with faith already shaken outside the room after a Game 1 clunker. Matthews, highest paid of the Core Four forwards at $13.25 million a season, needed to have a huge presence in a Game 2 that looked at times as if it, too, would be fumbled away.

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He embraced his inner ‘Killer’ and, like Gilmour, had significant shifts throughout the 200-foot stage, capped by the 3-2 winner on a full-steam breakaway. Matthews’ three-point night tied a career single-game high and though still trailing Gilmour 77-47 in post-season production, he earned himself and his club an extended runway in this series, tied 1-1 heading home.

“Auston was all over the stats sheet tonight,” head coach Sheldon Keefe praised to the media in Boston. “A goal, two assists, but to me it’s the way he worked — hard, physical, winning puck battles all over the ice.”

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Game 3 is Wednesday in Toronto, where the Leafs could get William Nylander back and now have a confident Ilya Samsonov in net after Boston chose to take Leafs nemesis Jeremy Swayman out on Monday for Linus Ullmark.

In the teeth of the Bruins’ TD Garden den, Matthews played a team-high 23 minutes and 24 seconds, had eight shots on Ullmark and delivered six hits. After labouring in vain to reach his 70th goal during the last three regular-season games, he finally nailed it in style, one-handing a long aerial bomb from Max Domi at the Boston blue line, away from the flailing stick of Charlie McAvoy, settling the disc and deking Ullmark.

“Perfect pass by Max…those are the moments you live for,” Matthews said. “It’s all about just trying to get to the net. It’s a battle at the net fronts out there, and I guess on the goal, just a flip out of the zone and just try to anticipate and time it well.”

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With less than eight minutes to go, it was Toronto’s first lead on Boston in six games all season. Matthews then helped kill the final seconds with Ullmark on the bench, after Tyler Bertuzzi served a potentially devastating penalty.

“There is just a lot of belief and trust in that room in one another,” captain John Tavares told Sportsnet. “A lot of guys have been in different situations over the years. We just continued to stay with it and got rewarded.

“Good for the power play to come through (1-for-16 against Boston this season coming in) and any time you give No. 34 a look like that, he’s obviously a special player who made a good play.

“The way the guys were blocking shots, closing time and space, Sammy being big and seeing pucks and guys battling hard for him, it was a hard-fought win.’

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The Leafs had lost the previous eight to Boston going back to last year and in each of their previous eight playoff games versus Tampa, Florida and Boston, had not scored more than two.

GAME ON

At times Keefe flipped Domi and Mitch Marner on Matthews’ right side to re-unite the latter with his long-time centre. It’s just as important to give Marner some jump, too, especially with Nylander missing a second game with an undisclosed injury … Tavares’ goal, when Matthews found him alone in the high slot, was preceded by two power-play video reviews that went against the Leafs, which Keefe cited in saying he “loved the resolve” of the Leafs. Calle Jarnkrok’s shot that Ullmark gloved was inconclusively not over the goal line and Bertuzzi’s mid-air bat looked low enough until the cameras zoomed in … As in Game 1, a good Leafs start came undone while trying to show Boston they wouldn’t be intimidated on Causeway Street. Jake McCabe cross-checked Jakub Lauko after a whistle and Boston capitalized, Jake DeBrusk adding to his productive Game 1 by setting up Morgan Geekie after David Kampf and Timothy Liljegren got confused on who should make an easy clear … Kudos to the Leafs for coming right back 14 seconds later, Matthews corralling a high puck following a fortuitous bounce off a stanchion, firing it off the crossbar, with Domi following up. That made Max and Tie Domi the first Leafs father and son with Toronto playoff goals … The fourth line of Ryan Reaves, Kampf and Connor Dewar once more out-played Boston’s group, though the Leafs cratered in the last 20 seconds of the first period. Samsonov whiffed on a handoff to Liljegren, giving Charlie Coyle an extra shot that broke Samsonov’s mask. In the time it took the goalie to get his broken strap fixed, Boston had time to double-check a faceoff set play, Geekie won the draw, defenceman Simon Benoit was unable to tie up David Pastrnak, who then eluded Marner and one-timed a slick behind-the-back pass from Pavel Zacha for his first of the series … Starting Ullmark left Boston coach Jim Montgomery open to criticism, messing with Jeremy Swayman’s 4-0 record against the Leafs this season with only three goals against the past three in regular season and playoffs. But Montgomery was not going to break up what has been an effective rotation.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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