The Toronto Maple Leafs were just 7.8 seconds away from heading into the second period of Game 2 tied with the Boston Bruins.
But Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak had other ideas.
Off a faceoff in the offensive zone, Zacha found his teammate in the slot with an incredible no-look pass and Pastrnak made no mistake to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead heading into the locker room.
Adding insult to injury for Maple Leafs fans was the fact that Pastrnak’s tally came right after an unfortunate bounce for Toronto goaltender Ilya Samsonov. Just prior to the goal, Samsonov took a shot off the side of the head and there was then a delay to get his mask re-adjusted.
Samsonov looked to be a bit shaken up after the shot, but remained in the game.
Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs netminder, the next shot he faced was from Pastrnak wide open in the slot. Toronto defenceman Simon Benoit appeared to lose the Bruins sharpshooter off the draw leaving him wide open for his first of the series.
Sportsnet’s colour commentator Craig Simpson pointed out that the delay to fix Samsonov’s mask may have benefitted the Bruins as it gave them an unexpected timeout.
“You got a Leafs team that’s maybe been focused on their goaltender, and during that whole timeout, you have the Bruins making up a plan,” Simpson explained.
Whatever their plan was, they sure executed it to perfection.