"We had to be patient with our game," Tavares said. "We had to win a lot of battles. There wasn't much room out there for either team. Eventually, we started to create a little bit more, tilt the ice a little bit. They came hard early in the third, but we withstood that and obviously got a couple big goals."
Tavares put the Maple Leafs in front 2-1 at 8:24. Mitchell Marner gathered the puck in the right face-off circle and slipped it to Tavares, who drove to the net for his 399th NHL goal.
"[The puck was just] kind of bouncing, and lucky enough, I was able to pull it through," Marner said. "I saw Johnny going back side there. I just tried to put it in a spot where he could one-touch it in."