Power failure helps lead to Maple Leafs’ downfall in Game 3 loss

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Bring the Passion. 

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It’s the motto inscribed on the rally towels placed on each seat at Scotiabank Arena, a greeting for fans to get them into the proper mindset on Wednesday night for Game 3 between the Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins.

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Members of Leafs Nation might have been asked to bring some power as well to pass it out to their hockey heroes. 

With a 4-2 victory, the Bruins took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, smothering the Leafs at just about every turn and slamming the door on an ineffective Leafs power play, killing off all five minors.

Auston Matthews, a dominant force in Game 2, couldn’t get untracked and finished with three shots on goal.

Bruins captain Brad Marchand scored the winner at 11:53 of the third, hitting the top corner over Ilya Samsonov’s left shoulder. That came just 28 seconds after Tyler Bertuzzi got his stick on a Morgan Rielly shot to fool Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman and tie the game 2-2. 

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Marchand scored into an empty Leafs net in the final minute.

The Leafs have a few days before Game 4 on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena to make adjustments offensively. They miss William Nylander, no doubt, but each of them will have to find a better level of execution. Matthews and Mitch Marner, who got his first point of the series, have to lead in that way.

After coach Sheldon Keefe said in the morning that there was “a chance” that Nylander could make his series debut, that didn’t happen. Nylander, dealing with an undisclosed injury, took part in the morning skate but was not on the ice for the warmup and was scratched.

Neither team scored in the first period, and but each club found the scoreboard in the second to put some shine on what otherwise has been a low-event hockey game, offensively speaking.

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The Bruins went ahead 2-1 at 1:07 of the third when Jake DeBrusk scored to record his fifth point of the series, beating Samsonov on a power play when too many Leafs converged on the side boards. Marchand got the puck, took a shot and DeBrusk cleaned up.

Marner registered his first point of the series in a fashion that has become typical for the gifted Leafs winger. 

He threaded a needle to set up Matthew Knies, who cut to the net and got his stick on the puck to re-direct it past Swayman at 13:10 of the second for a 1-0 Leafs lead.

Defenceman Joel Edmundson was instrumental on the play, first passing to Marner before he headed toward the net to create some distraction as Marner made the pass. 

In the morning, Keefe said he wasn’t concerned with the zero that sat beside Marner’s name in the points column through two games.

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“I don’t get too worked up over that,” Keefe said. “I don’t get too caught up in that sort of stuff. We need to win hockey games, and the other night, we had enough to win.

“As series go on, as playoffs go on, everybody gets their moment. Mitch has come through for us offensively in so many ways in the past and found ways to produce and he’ll do it again.”

And this was Marner, who had just four shots on goal in total in the two games in Boston.

“We just want to win hockey games,” Marner said when asked about his role. “We want to do the best we can out there every time you touch the ice. That’s where my mindset is at and that’s what I’m trying to do every time I get out there.”

Before the Bruins tied the game at 17:37 on a goal by Trent Frederic, Samsonov stopped ex-Leaf James van Riemsdyk, who managed to get in alone for a backhand. 

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The goal by Frederic wasn’t great from Samsonov’s point of view. The shot from the circle to Samsonov’s right got under his blocker and went off the post on the short side and in.

It came while Bertuzzi and Marchand jostled in the neutral zone, a battle that went on long enough that there could have been off-setting minors.

And fans weren’t happy that there was no call when Charlie McAvoy dumped Matthews behind the Bruins net not long before Frederic scored his second of the series.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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