Brad Marchand scores winner, Bruins down Maple Leafs to take 2-1 series lead

Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday.

Jake DeBrusk and Trent Frederic had the other goals for Boston.

The Bruins got 28 stops from Jeremy Swayman, who made 35 saves in his team's 5-1 victory in Game 1 before giving way to crease counterpart Linus Ullmark in the Leafs' 3-2 triumph two nights later.

Tyler Bertuzzi and Matthew Knies replied for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov made 30 saves.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven matchup goes Saturday back at Scotiabank Arena. Game 5 is set for Tuesday in Boston.

Leafs winger William Nylander took line rushes at the morning skate, but missed a third straight contest — the Swede played all 82 in the regular season — with an undisclosed injury.

Moments after the Leafs tied things 2-2 to send Scotiabank Arena into a frenzy and then nearly took the lead off a Swayman turnover,

Marchard took a pass from Danton Heinen and ripped a shot past Samsonov's ear at 11:53 of the third.

Toronto pulled Samsonov for the extra attacker with just over two minutes to go in regulation, but Leafs captain John Tavares took a holding penalty with 64 seconds left before Marchand sealed it into the empty net.

Tied 1-1 through 40 minutes, DeBrusk bagged his third goal in as many games when he scored on a man advantage 67 seconds after the restart off a Marchand rebound when the Leafs lost structure on their struggling penalty kill.

Toronto's power play came over the boards a few minutes later, but couldn't connect despite a couple of great chances for Bertuzzi, slipping to 0-for-5 on the night and 1-for-11 in the series.

Bruins winger James van Riemsdyk hit the post on a partial break midway through the period before Bertuzzi tipped a Morgan Rielly shot off Boston defenceman Hampus Lindholm to tie the game 2-2.

Marchand — Boston's captain seemingly always in the thick of things at this time of year — responded just 28 seconds later to give his team a lead it would never surrender to re-establish home-ice advantage.

The Leafs opened the scoring at 13:10 of the second when the under-fire Mitch Marner — without a point through two games and the subject of intense media scrutiny — deftly moved past a defender and slid a pass for Knies to redirect upstairs on Swayman.