Mitch Marner, whose fingerprints were on two goals including Connor McDavid’s winner, won the border war against Auston Matthews, in a Boston barn where Toronto was eliminated three times in a first-round Game 7 series in which he and Matthews had little consolation of being their team’s leading scorer.

“They get paid the big bucks, but at the end of the day, they grind it, too,” Leafs forward Steven Lorentz, who made a terrific play to set up David Kampf’s 3-0 goal, said of Matthews and Marner. “They’re obviously very skilled and they can put the puck in the net, but when the minutes get up there with them, you don’t really see it a whole lot.