Brad Marchand haunts the Maple Leafs again in heartbreaking Game 3 loss

“We’re lucky to be here and you want to make the most of this opportunity.”

Did he ever.

Marchand scored twice — including the winner and an empty netter — in Boston’s 4-2 win at Scotiabank Arena that gave the Bruins a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup first round series.

The winner came 28 seconds after Tyler Bertuzzi tied the game in the third period, deflating the crowd. Marchand was instrumental in each of the Bruins’ goals.

But more than the goals, he got under the legs of Bertuzzi, the skin of the Leafs, and left Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe with some choice words, though they were more likely aimed at the officials more than Marchand.

“He’s a world-class player, both in ability and in how he plays.” Keefe said of Marchand. “The gamesmanship. He’s been in the league long enough that you can see, he gets calls. It’s unbelievable actually. I don’t think there’s another player in this series that gets away with taking out Bertuzzi’s legs the way that he does. There’s not one other player in this series that gets away with that, but he does. It’s an art and he’s elite at it. So we have to manage our way through that.”

The Leafs talked a lot about cleaning up their mistakes (they should), about fixing the power play (1-for-11 in this series) and doing better on the penalty kill (which has surrendered five goals in 10 chances).

But unless they can figure out what to do — or more to the point, what not to do — with Marchand, they’re going to be in trouble.

“He’s obviously wants to get under our skin and influence the refs,” said Leaf forward Matthew Knies. “We’ve got to be composed and not kind of get into that bulls—- and play hard.

Marchand vs. Bertuzzi

Knies had scored the first goal — on a terrific pass from Mitch Marner. And the Leafs looked in control.

But Marchand was instrumental in Trent Frederic’s game-tying goal. That was one of the times Marchand took down Bertuzzi in the neutral zone. There was a scrum that — perhaps with other characters — might have been whistled down by the officials. The refs let them rough each other up while Frederic got the puck and went down the wing unopposed to score on Ilya Samsonov and tie the game.

“That’s what he does,” Bertuzzi said of Marchand’s antics. “He’s been doing it for a long time. So I don’t expect it to stop.”

More Marchand

Marchand’s hockey smarts were instrumental in Jake DeBrusk’s third-period power-play goal. The Leafs were on a power play late in the second, with Charlie McAvoy called for roughing. But shortly after the puck dropped, Bertuzzi was called for roughing. Marchand called for his teammates to rag the puck to kill as much of McAvoy’s penalty as possible before the refs could blow the whistle. That limited the 4-on-4 time and gave the Bruins clean ice to start the third with a power play.

“We were trying to kill as much time off the clock as we could. We were trying to get as much power-play time out of that,” said Marchand.

It worked, with DeBrusk scoring 1:07 into the extra man situation for a 2-1 lead.

Bertuzzi scored to tie the game at 11:25, off a pass from Morgan Rielly that pinballed around. Then Marchand scored at 11:53, and into the empty net at 19:24.

Marchand scored his 54th playoff goal, moving within one of tying Cam Neely (55) for first place on the franchise’s all-time list. It was also Marchand’s 12th career game-winning goal in the playoffs, passing Neely (11) for sole possession of the most in franchise history.

“He’s our leader and he drags us into the fight every night,” said McAvoy. “It’s on us to follow behind him. I love what he said about gratitude, and realizing where you are. These series, they go fast. These opportunities, you’ve got to work for them. Blink and it’ll be over.”

Not exactly comforting words for Leafs fans to hear.

The Leafs won’t skate until Friday, with hope rising that William Nylander (undisclosed) will return in time for Game 4 Saturday.

Keefe hopes it will benefit “not just guys who aren’t playing, but some guys who are playing. But coming off a loss, it gives us a chance to take a breath, regroup.”