Pastrnak Pots Two, But B's Lose in Toronto

TORONTO - David Pastrnak notched two goals to end his five-game goal-less drought, but the Bruins five-game points streak also came to an end on Monday night with a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
The Bruins - via Pastrnak - twice came back to tie the game, but Josh Leivo's power-play tally with 1:22 remaining in the second proved to be the difference.

"We played hard. You're not gonna win every game. I thought we generated lots of offensive zone time and chances in front of their goaltender," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "There's always good things, tonight more than most nights when you lose. I thought at the end of the day we probably deserved a better fate. But their goaltender was excellent."
Pastrnak's first marker came on the power play at 3:39 of the second to tie the game at 1. The winger took a slick backhand, cross-crease feed from Brad Marchand (two assists) and just trickled the puck by Frederic Andersen (38 saves) for his first goal since Nov. 14 in Colorado.
"He needed it for himself and we needed it for the team. When your best players don't score for stretches, it's gonna show up," said Cassidy. "Secondary scoring has helped us. It helped us in Montreal, helped us in Arizona, Detroit [we] get a point.
"Eventually you need it. Got it tonight, got going. I think him and Marchy both. Unfortunately we couldn't squeeze one more out of the rest of the group."

Boston fell behind by a goal once again on Igor Ozhiganov's first career goal with 6:54 to play in the second, but Pastrnak responded just 1:16 later with his second of the night. Following a clean face-off win by Marchand back to the point, Torey Krug corralled the puck and found Pastrnak breaking to the front of the net.
Pastrnak made one quick move, fooling Andersen and leaving a gaping cage for him to deposit his 19th of the season - tying him once again for the league lead with Winnipeg's Patrik Laine.
"I was just hoping that he was able to see the puck because there was a lot of traffic there," said Krug, who assisted on both of Pastrnak's goals. "Give skill guys the chance to make a play and luckily he was able to come up with it."
Pastrnak now has five goals in two games against the Leafs this season, following his dominant performance against Toronto in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring (five goals and eight assists in seven games).
"I don't know. Just go out there and play," Pastrnak said of his success against the Leafs. "Maybe a little last year…beating them and had a good series, maybe since then. Other than that, I just go out there and play."

More news and notes from the Bruins' loss in Toronto:

Miller Hospitalized

Kevan Miller took a puck to the throat after deflecting a John Tavares shot with his stick late in the first period and was taken to a local hospital. According to Cassidy, the veteran defenseman is "out of any danger," but stayed overnight for observation.
"Looks like X-rays are negative, got it in the throat," said Cassidy. "They're going to keep him overnight for observation, make sure his breathing stays normal. Hopefully he's able to fly back tomorrow, that's the plan.
"I don't know if there's a timeline, if he's back in Thursday, if it's that simple. But right now he's out of any danger from what we've heard."
Miller was back in the lineup for just his fourth contest since returning from a 13-game absence with a hand injury.
"It's tough. We all hope he's gonna be all right and just the way he plays, he doesn't back up from anything," said Pastrnak. "He does so much for this team. He eats every puck, broken shots and battles every single shift. Hopefully he's gonna be all right and back soon with us again."

DeBrusk Banged Up

Jake DeBrusk also was hit up high by a puck when he was struck by a Danton Heinen shot in the back of the helmet late in the third. The winger played through it, but missed his final shift.
"He tried to finish, but missed the last shift. I don't know anything other than that," said Cassidy.
The Bruins, besieged by the injury bug so far this season, are already without Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, and Urho Vaakanainen.
"It's part of hockey," said Pastrnak. "It's tough, obviously we have to get tight as a group and try to battle for the guys that are hurt. Obviously it's not easy. We've got our main leadership group hurt. We're all missing them, but that's what it is and we need to step up."

Cave Promoted

About halfway through the game, Colby Cave was bumped up to the Bruins' first line to center Marchand and Pastrnak. Cassidy was not pleased with the compete level of Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and felt a change was needed.
"I didn't like his compete tonight. Listen, we've talked about it. He needs to bring it every night," said Cassidy. "If he's gonna play with those guys, it was [Sidney] Crosby, it's [John] Tavares - it's a big ask. I've said it too, we saw something we liked, we moved him up. Tonight we didn't see as much of it.
"We moved Colby up. JFK [is] a little more comfortable down as third-line center. Going forward, until we get Bergy back, it's a work in progress. I thought Cave responded well. It's his opportunity, he wants to take advantage of it and he's doing whatever he can."
Cave, who has played three games since being recalled from Providence, jumped at the chance to play with what he called two "MVP-caliber" players.
"It's pretty cool lining up with those guys," said Cave. "They're gonna find you wherever you are. Just got to work hard to find the right spots…these guys are world-class players, they're both MVP-caliber guys.
"It's pretty easy to follow those guys on and off the ice. They're leaders, so you just want to do the same thing they're doing - work hard on and off the ice."