Mitch Marner on Maple Leafs’ gutsy comeback win vs Bruins: ‘We just believed it’

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner credited his team’s effort in their comeback win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

After playing sluggish through the first half of the game and trailing 3-0, the Leafs stormed their way back to even things up, which included a Pontus Holmberg goal in the dying seconds to tie it at 4-4. Marner led the way with two tallies of his own, including the overtime winner off a nifty move that fooled Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman.

When speaking with TSN’s Mark Masters after the game about what led to his team erasing the three-goal deficit, Marner said it was the belief and commitment from the Leafs to rally back in this one.

“Great. I think we’ve talked about this year that we have a lot of belief in our team, regardless of the score of the game” he said on the emotions in the locker room after the win. “Give a lot of kudos out to Stolie and our five D. I mean, we pretty much played five D the whole night and that’s not an easy thing to do against that team. It was a team effort. We never got down, we just believed it.”

Marner was correct in crediting Anthony Stolarz for his heroics as the netminder was the primary reason the Leafs even had a chance to claw their way back despite allowing four goals on the night. He made numerous quality saves throughout the contest – 32 to in total- including in overtime moments before the star forward ended it.

After Marner scored to complete the comeback, he sprinted right over to his goalie to show some appreciation for his efforts.

“Hey, he’s been unreal all year,  I’ve been speaking about it every interview,” he said. “Another unbelievable performance by him. Plays the puck great too, he’s a big help on the three-on-three there as well. He made a couple of massive saves to keep that game how it was and I just wanted to give him some love.”