Bruins top Leafs 5-1 in Game 1 of NHL playoffs first round

Jake DeBrusk had two goals and an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 in Game 1 of their first round NHL playoff series on Saturday.

John Beecher, Brandon Carlo and Trent Frederic — into an empty net — also scored for Boston, which got 35 saves from Jeremy Swayman.

Brad Marchand and Charile McAvoy had two assists each for the Bruins, who swept the regular season series 4-0-0 with the Leafs.

David Kampf replied for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov stopped 19 shots.

The Leafs winger William Nylander sat out with an undisclosed injury — the first game he's missed for anything other than illness since November 2016.

Toronto won its first post-season series in 19 years last spring before falling to the Florida Panthers in the second round. Boston had a record-breaking 2022-23 campaign, but fell victim to the Panthers to open its playoffs.

Toronto and Boston are meeting in the first round for the fourth time in the last 12 years. The Bruins took all three previous series — in 2013, 2018 and 2019 — in seven games.

After the visitors registered the first four shots of the game on Saturday, Boston took a 1-0 lead at 2:26 of the opening period when Beecher scored his first-career playoff goal on a 2-on-1 after Joel Edmundson pinched at the offensive blue line.

Samsonov heard a symphony of iron behind him as the period wore on, with Charlie Coyle hitting the post before both Charlie McAvoy and Pavel Zacha chimed shots off the crossbar.

Bruising Bruins forward Pat Maroon also nearly put Leafs defenceman Timothy Liljegren into Boston's bench inside a pulsating TD Garden that watched Toronto winger Max Domi cross-check and slash Marchand before the opening faceoff.

The Leafs couldn't connect on a 4-on-3 power play to