Toronto Maple Leafs lose first road game 6-2 to Boston Bruins -NHL Match Update
Toronto was entering their first road game of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season after recording one of the best records in the league by having won four of the past five matchups. Unluckily, The Maple Leafs fell against the Boston
Bruins, 6-2, on Thursday, October 20, 2011, at the sold-out TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Boston, after having an up and down start to the new season coming out as winners of the 2011 Stanley Cup did not portray them as a championship team ready to defend their cup in any way. Bruins head coach, Claude Julien, made some changes on the line-up
that he thought about experimenting with and paid off against Toronto.
"I think it was definitely a good thing because no one really had too much chemistry", Boston rookie, Tyler Seguin, said. "When all the lines are mixed up, you kind of just focus on playing your best. And with that tonight everyone kind of just focused
on your game and what they have to do in taking accountability and I think that's why we were successful. Not thinking about the chemistry and just ‘I need to do my role' and things will work out and that's what happened tonight".
After Toronto’s David Steckel scored for the team and put them ahead by one during the opening period, Boston reacted and took opportunities of a number of power play opportunities.
Nathan Horton kicked off the scoring for Boston at the midway point of the first period for his second on a power play. Zdeno Chara extended the lead less than six minutes later for his first of the season while Chris Kelly finalised the first 20 minutes
in favour of Boston with another goal 1:44 later.
Both teams has nearly the same amount of attempts in the second period but remained scoreless as both goalies stayed hot in the net. Boston outshot Toronto 43-28 in the matchup, with a double, 14-7, difference in the final period alone.
Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron and Tyler Seguin took the match way out of hand for Toronto by scoring three straight through Maple Leafs goalie, Jonas Gustavsson. Mikhail Grabovski put another one in for Toronto at the 12:32 mark but failed to add any more.
Boston Bruins remain at home to host San Jose Sharks on Saturday while Maple Leafs travel to Montreal to face the Canadiens the same day.
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