Boston Bruins’ Pavel Zacha (18) celebrates his goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs with teammate Taylor Hall (71) during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Feb.1, 2023 in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP) AP

TORONTO (AP) — Pavel Zacha scored twice in the third period as the Boston Bruins held off the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Wednesday night.

Derek Forbort and Brandon Carlo both had goals in the second period as Boston snapped a three-game winless skid. A.J. Greer also scored in the final period and Linus Ullmark made 33 saves.

Mitchell Marner scored on the power play, his 19th goal of the season, for Toronto. Calle Jarnkrok had a goal in the third to keep the Maple Leafs in the game. Ilya Samsonov stopped 24 shots in his eighth consecutive game in net for Toronto.

Samsonov was 5-1-1 over his last seven starts with a .925 save percentage and 2.24 goals-against average.

Forbort snapped home a short-handed goal 6:57 into the second.

Marner replied on the power play 2:28 later. After a long leading pass off the boards from Samsonov, Marner skated through the left faceoff circle and snapped a shot past Ullmark to tie it at 1.

Carlo reestablished Boston’s one-goal lead a little over three minutes later, taking a pass from Hampus Lindholm and deflecting it past Samsonov from a wide angle.

TAVARES PUNK’D

John Tavares celebrated his 1,000th game in the NHL on Sunday with two assists in Toronto’s 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals. Timothy Liljegren decided to have a little fun at his captain’s expense after the game, awarding the team’s MVP belt to Mark Giordano instead of Tavares. Giordano said on Wednesday he had intended to give a long speech to really rub salt in Tavares’ wound but when he looked around the room he knew he had to give the belt to its proper recipient.

“The joke got a few guys and they were already pretty upset that we didn’t give it to John so I had to turn it over pretty quick,” laughed Giordano.

UP NEXT

Bruins: After All-Star break, host the Washington Capitals on Saturday, Feb. 11.

Maple Leafs: After All-Star break, at Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, Feb. 10.

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