While their record at home this season is .500 (5-5-0), the Toronto Maple Leafs have quietly been dominating on the road — that is, until Saturday night.
On the second night of back-to-back games, the Leafs suffered their first road loss of the season, falling to the Bruins 5-1 in Boston. Toronto is now 6-1-0 away from Scotiabank Arena.
The line of David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron continued to dominate. The trio was involved in four of the five Bruins goals, with three of them coming off Pastrnak's stick.
After Bergeron scored in the first period, he fed the 22-year-old right winger for a one-timer past Leafs goalie Garret Sparks, who was making his first start since Oct. 15, while Pastrnak was falling down. Later in the period, Marchand fed Pastrnak for a power-play goal on the doorstep. Pastrnak finished off the hat trick in the third on another power play.
Boston's first-round pick in 2014 netted his third career hat trick and he now has 15 goals and 21 points in 16 games this season. Bergeron finished with three points and Marchand had two assists in the win.
David Pastrnak is averaging 1.42 points per game vs. TOR (regular season and playoffs combined). He trails only Phil Esposito (1.52) and Jean Ratelle (1.46) for highest such total by a @NHLBruins player against the Maple Leafs franchise (min. 10 GP). #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/toynXdnRRa
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 11, 2018
John Tavares scored the only goal for Toronto when he buried the puck past a diving Jaroslav Halak. Tavares now has a point in five consecutive games and nine goals and nine assists in 16 games this season. Halak started Saturday in place of Bruins No. 1 goalie Tuukka Rask, who was granted a leave of absence Thursday.
Entering Saturday, Toronto had outscored its opponents 32-17 on the road.
In addition to the loss being Toronto's first away from Scotiabank Arena, it also snapped a Leafs three-game winning streak.