Bruins 6, Maple Leafs 2
The Boston Bruins matched their season total of power-play goals in the first period and Tim Thomas made 26 saves in a 6-2 victory over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.
Zdeno Chara recorded his first points with a goal and two assists. Andrew Ference, Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic joined their captain with three points apiece.
Boston entered the game 2-for-25 on the power play, a big contributor to its disappointing start. But after surrendering the first goal on Thursday, the Bruins snapped out of their funk.
Nathan Horton got the tying goal at the 10:32 mark of the first, taking advantage of an interference penalty when he banged home the rebound of Chara’s blast. Chara gave Boston the lead on the power play less than six minutes later, sending a one-timer past Jonas Gustavsson from the right face-off circle.
The strong first period continued at even strength, when Chris Kelly got his own rebound and buried it.
Toronto, which was playing its first road game and the second night of its first back-to-back, came out sluggish and could not recover.
Three third-period tallies put it away for Boston.