Maple Leafs tie series with Bruins
Frederik Andersen made 32 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Boston Bruins 3-1 to tie their firstround playoff series 3-3 on Monday night. William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Tomas Plekanec, into an empty net, scored for the Leafs, who trailed the Eastern Conference quarterfinal 3-1 before winning two straight to force Game 7 on Wednesday in Boston.
Nikita Zaitsev added two assists. Marner and Plekanec had one assist each.
Jake DeBrusk replied for the Bruins. Tuukka Rask stopped 27 shots after getting pulled in Game 5 at TD Garden.
The winner of the series will meet the Tampa Bay Lightning in the next round.
There was a moment of silence before the opening faceoff at Air Canada Centre to honour the 10 people killed Monday when a van mounted a sidewalk in Toronto’s north end and struck multiple pedestrians. Fifteen others were injured.
Scoreless after an end-to-end first period, the Bruins grabbed a 1-0 lead 1:02 into the second when David Krejci won a faceoff after an icing against Auston Matthews right to DeBrusk, who ripped a shot between Andersen’s arm and body. Toronto responded just 35 seconds later when Nylander buried a rebound off a Jake Gardiner shot from the point for his first goal of the playoffs. The Leafs appeared to go ahead at 3:04 when Zach Hyman beat Rask with a nolook backhand as he fell to the ice. But the Bruins challenged the play for goalie interference, and replays showed the winger knocked the stick out of Rask’s hands as he cruised through the crease just before scoring. Boston took control of the period from there as Toronto could barely get out of its own zone or complete a clean breakout. Andersen - who recorded 42 stops in a 4-3 victory in Game 5 on Saturday - made great saves off Rick Nash, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron to keep things level. The Leafs then took an unlikely lead completely against the run of play with 6:35 left in the period when Marner was quickest to a loose puck in the slot and beat Rask with a backhand to the far post after Marchand couldn’t clear.
Toronto killed off its first penalty early in the third, and was then left fuming when David Backes elbowed Andersen in the mask, but was only assessed an offsetting roughing minor when Roman Polak came to his goalie’s defence. The Leafs couldn’t connect on their third power play moments later, and Andersen stoned Sean Kuraly with under 10 minutes to go.
Rask then robbed Nylander off a great feed from Auston Matthews.
The Bruins went back to the power play with under six minutes left, but the best chance came when Rask stopped Kasperi Kapanen on a 2-on-1 that turned into a breakaway before stoning Krejci on a one-time shot that brought the towelwaving crowd to its feet. Rask followed that up by stopping Matthews on another 2-on-1 off a pass from Plekanec with Air Canada Centre ready to explode.
Plekanec then iced it into an empty net with 1:14 to play. Both goalies were also on their game in the first as the clubs combined for 44 shot attempts, including 26 from Boston.