TORONTO — When the Bruins came out for the second period, they had one thought: “Enough is enough.’’
They had come into the game riding a five-game losing streak, a slide that started on the West Coast and continued this week in losses to New York and Florida. They were playing against the team with the worst record in the East, albeit one that had won five of six, and they desperately needed 2 points. Plus, they had been given a gift earlier — thanks, in part, to Phil Kessel’s 5 points — by the Penguins, who beat Detroit to ensure the Bruins would remain in the playoff structure at the end of the night.
And still, the Bruins had come out with a lackluster effort in the first period. They had looked timid, unwilling to handle the puck or take a shot or do the work necessary. They had just 13 attempts on net, as compared with 25 for the Maple Leafs, who cashed in on one of those shots, putting the Bruins down by a goal.
That all changed in the second.
“It was just to stop being tentative and obviously you could tell the confidence wasn’t necessarily there, probably because the last five games didn’t go our way,’’ Patrice Bergeron said, after the Bruins had taken the 3-1 win at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night. “So we just told everyone to play the game and stop worrying so much.’’
It worked. They became more aggressive, more pointed with their passes. They stopped looking afraid to play hockey.
“We had to,’’ Matt Beleskey said. “No excuse to come out flat in this one. I don’t know if we came out flat, we just didn’t quite have it. I was happy with how we finished, that’s for sure.’’
Just 2:39 into the period, the Bruins got their first power play of the game. And just 13 seconds into that power play, they scored, as Bergeron flipped a rebound up and into the net, earning his 29th goal of the season. It was particularly gratifying to the Bruins, given that they had gone 0 for 13 on the man advantage in the five-game slide.
That tied the score.
“It’s a big goal from a big guy,’’ Joe Morrow said. “He’s always there. He’s always reliable. It’s not surprising, but it was really important.’’
And then, on another rebound attempt, the Bruins took the lead for good. After a shot by David Krejci, Zdeno Chara backhanded the puck past Jonathan Bernier (30 saves) after he came across the front of the net for his first goal after a 20-game drought.
It was the team’s leadership coming up at the crucial time.
“We talk about our leadership group being great leaders, strong, and they showed that,’’ coach Claude Julien said. “When you’re going through these kind of situations, those are the guys that are going to get you out, and they did a great job of that tonight.’’
It was Toronto that played like the team that needed the 2 points in the first 20 minutes. The Maple Leafs were the ones taking advantage of turnovers, putting pucks on Tuukka Rask, and getting chances. They had a scintillating one at 16:12 of the first period after a turnover by Frank Vatrano yielded a breakaway by Brooks Laich, and a rebound try by Colin Greening.
But, though they came up empty on that attempt, the Maple Leafs didn’t wait long to cash in. After a TV timeout, Greening snapped a shot on net from the right circle, which was tipped past Rask by Ben Smith at 16:55 of the period to give Toronto the early lead.
The Maple Leafs wouldn’t get another.
“We knew we were a little tight there in that first,’’ Julien said. “When you’ve been going through what you go through, it doesn’t just turn around like that. I think our intentions were good at the start of the game, but we were really tight.
“After the first, we talked about a couple things that we needed to do if we were going to turn this around: We needed to play with more energy and more confidence and just go out there and play. Do the right things. It slowly came around. After a while you started seeing our old team.’’
The Bruins finally salted away the win in the third period, with two blocked shots by Beleskey helping to keep Toronto from getting the equalizer. Beleskey, going through a 13-game scoring drought, was rewarded with the empty-netter from Loui Eriksson at 19:10.
With the win — and the Detroit loss — the Bruins kept hold of the third spot in the Atlantic, 3 points behind Tampa Bay (which has a game in hand) and 3 points ahead of Detroit (which also has a game in hand).
“You have to realize what you’re playing for,’’ Krejci said. “We’ve been battling the whole season to be in this position, which is a great position. We still control our own destiny. And now we are here, so we don’t want to just let it slip away.’’
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.
