Marner scores in OT, Maple Leafs rally late to defeat Bruins

Mitch Marner scored his second goal of the game at 4:08 of overtime, and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied late to defeat the Boston Bruins 5-4 at TD Garden on Tuesday.

Marner skated into a pass from Auston Matthews and scored on a breakaway, making a move to his forehand before tucking a shot around the left pad of Jeremy Swayman.

His goal came after Pontus Holmberg tied it 4-4 with 46 seconds remaining in the third period. Holmberg kicked a pass from Nicholas Robertson to his stick and lifted a shot over Swayman’s left shoulder from in tight.

“Big goal there 6-on-5 by Holmberg, and we didn’t quit,” Marner said. “That’s what we like to see out of our team.”

Morgan Rielly had a goal and three assists, Robertson had a goal and an assist, and Anthony Stolarz made 32 saves for the Maple Leafs (36-20-2), who overcame a three-goal deficit midway through the second period for their third straight win.

“These games (against the Bruins) are always intense and entertaining, and tonight was no different,” Rielly said. “It feels good, but there are more important things, and to win is great.”

David Pastrnak had two goals and an assist to extend his point streak to an NHL career-high 15 games for the Bruins (27-24-8), who have lost four in a row (0-2-2). Brad Marchand had a goal and an assist, and Swayman made 24 saves.

“It was disappointing, obviously,” Marchand said. “We can’t be giving up points right now. They’re obviously a very good team, and we knew they’d push, and they did. It doesn’t take much for them to score, and we saw that tonight. I thought we played well, definitely good enough to win that game. It’s unfortunate we didn’t get both points, but we’ve got to keep going.

“If we play like that every night, we’re going to win a lot of games. We can’t give points up right now, and we gave one away.”

Pastrnak gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead just 29 seconds into the game. Mason Lohrei gained control of the puck in the defensive zone and quickly threaded a stretch pass to Pastrnak, who skated in and beat Stolarz blocker side on a breakaway.

Pastrnak has 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists) during his 15-game point streak.

“World-class pass,” Pastrnak said. “I was surprised it landed right on my stick and happy that I buried it.”

Marchand made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 13:59 of the first. Pastrnak’s centering pass ramped up and hit Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe in the face, but the puck landed at the edge of the crease, where Marchand jammed it five-hole on Stolarz.

Morgan Geekie pushed it to 3-0 with his own power-play goal at 10:00 of the second period. He buried a rebound in the left circle after Stolarz kicked out Elias Lindholm’s initial one-timer.

“Right off the jump we knew they were going to be a desperate team,” Stolarz said. “They need all the points they can get, so they came out and they were heavy early. It took us a little bit to get going, but the compete and resilience by our group to stick with it and not having anything deter us — we kept chipping away and won in overtime.”

Rielly made it 3-1 at 13:52 of the second. He received a cross-ice pass from Matthew Knies and scored with a shot from the left circle that deflected in off the right skate of Bruins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon.

“We all knew we had to be better,” Rielly said.

Marner cut it to 3-2 with a power-play goal 59 seconds into the third period. Robertson then tied it 3-3 at 6:40, beating Swayman under his glove from the left circle on a partial breakaway.

Pastrnak put the Bruins back in front 4-3 with his 30th goal of the season at 10:33. Following a turnover along the boards, he skated in toward the net and roofed a shot over Stolarz’s right shoulder.

“If you look at the big picture, I thought we played a pretty good game against a pretty good hockey team,” Pastrnak said. “Being up 3-0 sounds like we should win the game, but that’s a really high-skilled team on the other end. It’s frustrating we retake the lead, 4-3, and we still weren’t able to close. It’s tough to leave that second point hanging and let them grab it.”

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