TORONTO — If Frazer McLaren was going to make any sort of impact for the Toronto Maple Leafs, you would expect it to be with his hands.
Just not like this.
It was the big bruiser who scored the biggest goal in what was arguably the team’s most important win of the season on Saturday night — a tight 3-2 decision over the Boston Bruins.
McLaren was parked at the edge of Anton Khudobin’s crease when he backhanded a shot through his legs, off his right skate and through the goaltender’s legs early in the third period. That gave the Leafs a 3-0 lead and they would need all of it to finally put an end to the run of futility against their nemesis from Beantown.
“I was just trying to change the angle (of the shot), but it turned out to be kind of a pretty goal,” said McLaren. “That’s how I’m going to get them — right in the blue paint there.”
This was actually the third goal of the season for the waiver wire addition, but it came with an important distinction: It was the first one that originated from McLaren’s stick. The first went in off his leg while the second banked in off his chest.
While some have questioned Randy Carlyle’s decision to use two fighters (McLaren and Colton Orr) on the team’s fourth line this season, the coach wasn’t surprised to see one of them chip in with a timely goal.
“If you watch, those are the guys that spend the time after practice and do all of the little skill drills and whatnot,” said Carlyle. “He should be rewarded. It’s the winning goal, so it’s a great play by a big man.”
It was fitting, really. There was nothing pretty about Toronto’s 17th victory of the season and that’s something we should expect as the games tighten up even more over the final month of the schedule.
However, there was no shortage of desire on display.
The Leafs blocked an impressive 31 shots — including a late one from Phil Kessel on the same shift where he had a spirited backcheck and knocked Tyler Seguin to the ice. It took all of that effort and a little good fortune (Boston rang two shots off the post in the final 20 minutes) for Toronto to end an eight-game losing slide against the Bruins.
“That’s a playoff game right there,” said Leafs defenceman Cody Franson. “Boston’s a good team, there’s no way around that. They’re experienced, they’ve got a lot of leadership in their room and they never go away.
“They’re a tough team to beat.”
The return match at TD Garden on Monday night sets up as the toughest game of the season. Not only are the Bruins looking to rediscover their swagger, they’ll also be trying to make a statement.
“We need more desperation,” said captain Zdeno Chara.
What the Leafs should see more than anything else is an opportunity. If they can find a way to sweep the mini two-game set against an opponent that has absolutely owned them, it might wind up being a defining moment in this season.
And if there’s one thing that came with the victory on Saturday night, it was a little bit of belief.
“Now we know we can beat them,” said goalie James Reimer, who was solid with 31 saves. “We were confident before, but now we can definitely see it on the scoreboard. So we should go in on Monday and be confident.”
For as much as the Leafs did all they could to downplay the importance of Boston’s recent dominance over them, it was clear that the victory came with some sense of relief. Finally getting a good result out of one of these matchups obviously provided some positive reinforcement.
However, no one was ignoring the fact Toronto generated just 13 shots and likely would have been tagged with a ninth straight loss to the Bruins had Reimer not outplayed Khudobin by such a wide margin.
In fact, it was the first time the Leafs had won a game with that little offence since a 12-shot victory over the Bruins way back on Feb. 24, 2001.
“My message after the game was to be business-like about the win and to recognize that we have three more periods in a very tough building where we haven’t had success before,” said Carlyle. “It’s going to take a more intense effort than we had tonight to go in there and have success.”
In other words, it might take another ugly victory.
One piece of encouragement that came from Saturday’s game was the 14th goal of the season from the red-hot Nazem Kadri. He took a gorgeous pass from linemate Clarke MacArthur before beating Khudobin for his ninth point in the last four games.
Kadri isn’t a superstitious sort, but he noted that the same stick has been responsible for all of those points.
“I’ll keep that one close to me,” he said.
McLaren might be wise to do the same. The Leafs obviously don’t look to him for offence, but they can certainly use it on any occasion he can find it — especially in games that matter as much as this one.