TORONTO — The losing is finally over for the Boston Bruins.
After dropping five consecutive games and plummeting from first in the Atlantic Division, the Bruins scored a badly needed victory, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 Saturday night in front of a crowd of 19,185 at Air Canada Centre.
Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara and Matt Beleskey had the goals for the Bruins, who raised their record to 40-28-8. They now have 88 points on the season, third in the Atlantic Division. Florida beat Tampa Bay 5-2 to claim sole possession of first with 93 points, two ahead of the Lightning.
The Bruins’ win, coupled with Detroit’s 7-2 loss to Pittsburgh, gives the Bruins a three-point cushion on Detroit, which is battling for the final wild card in the Eastern Conference.
The Maple Leafs, last in the National Hockey League with 65 points, dropped to 27-36-11. The Leafs came into the game with three consecutive wins and victories in five of their last six games. Ben Smith had the lone Toronto goal.
Boston has been tough on the road, increasing its record to 24-11-3.
“We had some great scoring chances, and the only thing now is you hope you can get that scoring touch to come back a little bit more,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “You want to win. You look at what happened today with Detroit losing, so this is an opportunity for us to gain some points and it was an important game for us for that reason. Whether it was relief, satisfaction, happy that we got a win under our belt … that first win is always the toughest. Hopefully we build on that.”
Chara, who scored a goal on a backhand in the second period that proved to be the game winner, said the Bruins’ victory simply came down to playing better than they had in recent games.
“You can’t really pick one thing that we did better than all those other games,” Chara said. “Overall I thought we were better defensively, offensively, stronger on pucks, more physical. Overall, I thought we had a good, strong 60-minute game. We stayed patient until the end. We got a big two points and next game is the biggest game for us.”
Bergeron, who opened the Bruins’ scoring with a power-play marker in the second period that tied the game, felt the team won because of its compete level.
“It was nice to get (a goal) that was allowed, too,” he said, referring to a goal he scored but was not allowed in the Bruins’ 4-1 loss to Florida on Thursday. “It’s a big win mentally as well, but we know we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Tuukka Rask, drafted 21st overall by the Leafs in 2005, backstopped the Bruins. He has had great success in his career against Toronto, increasing his record to 15-3-2 against the Leafs.
Jonathan Bernier took the loss for Toronto, only his second in his last five games. Bernier had a 1.27 goals-against average and .958 save percentage in his previous four starts.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock pulled Bernier inside the final three minutes of the game for an extra attacker. The Leafs had some close chances, but were assessed a two-minute minor on P.A. Parenteau at 18:23. Babcock elected to keep Bernier on the bench in favor of an extra attacker, but Beleskey sealed the win with an empty-net, power-play goal.
Tempers flared and fisticuffs erupted after the goal.
“I thought we did lots of good things,” Babcock said. “I thought we had a real good pushback in the third. It was one of those nights where (the opposition) really dug in and we were unable to score.”