AFP/Boston
Marc Savard scored a hat-trick as the Boston Bruins roared to a crushing 7-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Savard praised Bruins coach Claude Julien for an inspiring talk before the game as Boston rebounded from a 5-1 loss to Montreal on Friday.
“Claude’s pre-game speech tonight was probably one of the best I have ever heard,” Savard told reporters.
“It really fired us up early. It was special. So I think the guys reacted and gave it a good 60-minute effort.”
The win, coupled with the Buffalo Sabres’ 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers, pushed the Bruins a point ahead of the Sabres at the top of the Northeast division.
Marco Sturm opened the scoring for the home side at 5:28 in the first period and Savard made it 2-0 less than 40 seconds later.
Zdeno Chara and Savard grabbed goals in the second to extend the advantage with Mark Recchi and Johnny Boychuck scoring in the third.
Savard completed his hat-trick 12:45 into the final period to put the Bruins 7-0 ahead. Netminder Tuukka Rask made 31 saves as the Bruins held Toronto’s Phil Kessel, Boston’s leading goal scorer last season, to two shots and no goals in his first game against his old club.
“We didn’t play well. I didn’t play well,” said Kessel, who was booed throughout the game. Maple Leafs’ goalie Joey MacDonald was pulled after two periods with Boston 4-0 ahead but replacement Vesa Toskala finished up yielding three goals on 10 shots.
Niklas Hagman and Mikhail Grabovski scored Toronto’s consolation goals, both coming in the final five minutes.
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