Maple Leafs ride early lead to victory over Bruins, who will now face Carolina in first round

The Leafs, the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division, now will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round,  beginning at Scotiabank Arena. The Bolts are the two-time defending Cup champs, and they’ll be taking on a Leafs squad that has not won a playoff round since 2004.

It will be the third time in four seasons that the Bruins and Canes have met in the postseason. In 2019, the Bruins swept the Canes, 4-0, in the Eastern Conference Final en route to facing the St. Louis Blues in the Cup Final. The following year, at the “Bubble’ playoffs in Toronto, the Bruins knocked the Canes out, 4-1, in the first best-of-seven series of the playoffs for each team.

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William Nylander’s two goals paced the Leafs in their final win of the regular season, the Blue-and-White finishing with a 54-21-7 record. Trent Frederic and Jake DeBrusk (PPG) scored for the Bruins.

Winners of four straight prior to their stop at Scotiabank Arena, the Bruins in those for previous outings managed to take a lead into the third period of each game. But not against the Leafs.

Ilya Mikheyev, William Nylander, and Nick Abruzzese all scored in the first period, staking the Toronto to the 3-1 lead in the opening 20:00, a period that began with Trent Frederic posting the Bruins to a 1-0 lead with his eighth goal of the season at 1:10 of the first.

The Leafs soon got to work after Frederic’s goal, Mikheyev knotting it, 1-1, at 3:51 on a power play — a double minor for high sticking assessed to rookie Marc McLaughlin for his errant swipe at Mark Giordano. The front half of the 4:00 penalty had just expired when Mikheyev tipped home Giordano’s 58-foot wrister from the right point.

Nylander’s goal, his 33rd this season, also came with help from McLaughlin, who saw Nylander race down ice on a  breakaway after pokechecking the puck off McLaughlin’s stick just inside the Bruins offensive blue line. With Connor Clifton chasing him, the speedy Nylander finished off for the 2-1 lead with a nifty tuck at the base of the right post at 13:16.

Finally, their season-long bugaboo, a goal allowed in the final minute of the period, cost the Bruins a third goal. With only 6.7 seconds to go before the break, Morgan Rielly snapped off a 50-foot wrister from above the left wing circle and Abruzzese tipped it home for his first career goal.

Abruzzese suited up for only his ninth NHL game, after turning pro this spring upon completing his sophomore season at Harvard.  The 5-foot-9-inch pivot, drafted No. 124 in 2019 by the Leafs, finished second in Crimson scoring this season with 33 points, only 3 points off the pace set by freshman Matt Coronato.

Neither side connected for a goal in the second, a period in which Jake DeBrusk gave the Bruins bench a brief scare when he went down in a heap at 2:50 in the left wing corner of the offensive end.

Chasing a puck down, the slightly off-balance DeBrusk went careening back first into the base of the boards when he was hit by 6-4 blue liner Justin Holl.  DeBrusk, shaken,  remained down on the ice for a while, but finally regained his feet and made it back to the bench under his own power. He did not miss a shift.

Mikheyev nearly boosted the Toronto lead to 4-1 with 6:15 left in the second, jumping alone into the low slot for what would have been an unfettered shot on Swayman. But he fanned on the shot, and the margin remained 3-1.

The Leafs, secure with their No. 2 seed in the Atlantic, chose not to suit up star forwards Auston Matthew, Mitch Marner. and John Tavares.   Fittingly, they did not have their usual offensive jump.

Tomas Nosek delivered a nasty crosscheck to the back of Timothy Liljegren with 30 seconds remaining in the second. Liljegren toppled awkwardly into he boards,  prompting star backliner Morgan Rielly to wrestle briefly with the big Czech center.  Not a wise hit by Nosek, but at least it didn’t turn into another opposition goal in the final minute of the period.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.