TORONTO — The last time Mitch Marner remembers attending a Maple Leafs game as a fan, Mats Sundin returned to Air Canada Centre as a Vancouver Canuck.

More than seven years later, Sundin was back to see his No. 13 raised to the rafters, and Marner was there, too, scoring his first NHL goal to help Toronto roll over the Boston Bruins 4-1 on Saturday night for its first win of the season.

Marner got his first goal in only his second game, and was joined on the scoresheet by fellow rookie and Toronto native Connor Brown. Their efforts came on the heels of Auston Matthews’ historic debut, when he became the first player in the modern NHL to score four goals in his first game.

“It’s a lot of excitement and obviously there’s going to be (a) learning curve and growing pains throughout the way, but they’ve been playing great so far,” teammate James van Riemsdyk said.

Brown and Marner opened the scoring about 10 minutes apart, landing the Leafs in the record books once more. Toronto became the first team since expansion in 1967-68 to have rookies combine for the first six goals to start a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Brown had the game’s first goal after barely two minutes. The 19-year-old Marner scored soon after that, and then van Riemsdyk a few minutes later.

Advertisement

The fourth overall pick of the 2015 draft, Marner took a pass from Tyler Bozak just outside the Boston blue line, gained the offensive zone with space and fired a shot past goaltender Anton Khudobin to the far side.

A native of nearby Thornhill, Ontario, Marner followed with an exuberant celebration.

“To finally be playing in front of these fans for real, it’s pretty crazy,” Marner said. “And for the first one to go in in front of them, it’s kind of sweet.”

Anton Khudobin allowed four goals on 20 shots for Boston. David Pastrnak scored his third goal in two games.

“Overall, not a good enough effort on our part,” said Bruins Coach Claude Julien. “And at the end of the night, you don’t deserve the win.”

The worst team in the NHL last season, the Leafs have quickly shown themselves to be a much faster and highly skilled entity, led by Marner, Matthews and 20-year-old William Nylander. Often that youth shows itself in less effective ways, though, including a messy second period in which Toronto’s sloppiness led to chances and sustained offensive zone time for Boston.

Frederik Andersen gave up only one goal on 25 shots following his wobbly five-goal outing in Wednesday’s season opener.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.