Maple Leafs pound Bruins 5-2

The Bruins were beat and beat badly on Saturday night as they fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 in Toronto.

Luke Schenn spotted the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead 9:44 into the game. Schenn did his best Bobby Orr impression by skating the puck out of his own zone and into the attacking zone along the right wing boards. Shenn was able to beat Adam McQuaid with his foot speed, protect the puck and get in behind the B's blue liner, and continue to the net where he stuffed it past Tim Thomas for his 4th goal of the season.

The Bruins knotted it up at 1-1 at 11:46 of the first period on an unassisted goal by Adam McQuaid.

The Leafs answered right back just 40 seconds after McQuaid's tally. Nazem Kadri's shot from the left point appear to deflected off of a player in front causing it to change directions on a frozen Tim Thomas. The goal was Kadri's first of his young NHL career (if the scoring doesn't change).

The Leafs extended their lead to 2-1 at 7:49 of the second period after Joey Crabb deposited a rebound past Thomas from the slot.

Mike Brown made it a 3-goal game just 29 seconds after Crabb's goal when his wrister from the right dot beat Tim Thomas for Brown's 3rd goal of the season. Exit Tim Thomas. Enter Tuukka Rask.

Keith Aulie made 5-1 with 2:36 left in the second period. Zdeno Chara coughed up the puck in his own zone before the Leafs worked the puck to Aulie out near the blue line. Aulie's shot from the point made it past Tuukka Rask, who could not see the puck through traffic.

With the game well out of reach at 5-1, Daniel Paille padded his stats with a meaningless goal with 20 seconds left in the game when me jammed a puck past James Reimer from the doorstep for his 3rd goal of the season.

Notes:

- In a classy move by the Leafs organization, a tribute to Tomas Kaberle's years in Toronto was played on the jumbotron at Air Irrational Moron Centre.

- After being yanked in the second period, Tim Thomas was back in net for the third period. Putting Thomas back in to a 5-1 game may have made sense to Claude Julien, but I was completely baffled by it.

- Nathan Horton dropped the gloves with Dion Phaneuf in third period. Horton threw down his helmet and gloves and challenged Phaneuf. One of the officials got in between the two and would not let them get to each other, but after some jawing, the two swapped punches. In a questionable move, Phaneuf refused to take off his visored helmet despite Horton removing his (even though he did not have a visor). Horton got the worse of the fight and appeared to hit his helmet-less head on the ice.

- Zdeno Chara took a shot off of the left skate and went to the bench gingerly in the third period to the delight of a classy crowd in Toronto who cheered loudly. Stay classy Toronto!

- The Bruins continued to struggle on the power play tonight. The Bruins were 0 for 2 with the man advantage. A Bruins power play is like a date with a Mormon girl: lots of passes, but no scoring.

- Andrew "Fragile" Ference finished the game at -3 in 14:17 of ice time in his first game back from a lower body injury.

- Joey Crabb had a 3-point night for the Leafs (1-2-3).

- James Reimer was on his game in goal tonight for the leafs, stopping 35 of 37 shots.

- The Bruins will now return to Boston to play the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday before the Montreal Canadiens and their weaselly fans invade The Hub on Thursday.

- Fun Fact from Jeff Marek of HNIC: Frederick L'Ecuyer, who worked the game tonight was the ref that made the call that sent Tuukka Rask into his milk crate throwing rage when he was with the Providence Bruins.

- For more on tonight's game from happier scribes, head over to Pension Plan Puppets