Bruins bounce the Leafs again
BOSTON Jake DeBrusk scored his second goal of the game on a great individual effort in the third period as the Boston Bruins stormed back to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-4 on Wednesday in Game 7 to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Boston, which led the series 3-1 before Toronto mounted a comeback to push the series to its limit, will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference semifinal.
Game 1 of that series goes Saturday in Tampa, Fla.
Patrice Bergeron, with a goal and two assists, David Pastrnak, Danton Heinen, Torey Krug and Brad Marchand also scored for the Bruins. David Krejci had three assists, while Kevan Miller added two of his own.
Tuukka Rask made 20 stops. Pastrnak and Marchand had an assist each for a two-point night.
Patrick Marleau, with two, Travis Dermott and Kasperi Kapanen replied for the Leafs. Frederik Andersen stopped 29 of 35 shots, with Marchand’s goal going into an empty net. William Nylander added two assists.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock said he was “disappointed” by the final result.
“We were set up perfect going into the third. I thought we really played well the last 10 minutes of the second. We used all our people. We were fresh. I thought we were the fresher team, and we were in the driver’s seat,” said Babcock.
Toronto forced Game 7 after falling behind 3-1 in the series. The Leafs also trailed the Bruins 3-1 the last time the clubs met in the playoffs in 2013 before coming back to tie the series. Toronto blew a three-goal lead in the third period of that Game 7 as Boston won in overtime.
The collapse wasn’t quite as bad on this night, but it hurt just the same.
The visitors led 4-3 through two periods only to see Boston tie it 70 seconds into the third when Krug blasted a shot from the point past Andersen with the teams playing 4 on 4.
“We won the draw but they win the 50-50, it gets out to the point. I don’t know, I haven’t see the replay. I don’t know it if was tipped, but it still ended up in the net,” said Babcock.
“We were still in a good spot there. The next one hurt us. We didn’t respond. It was like devastation instead of just playing and executing in the third period.”
The Bruins then pulled in front at 5:25 with both teams again playing down a man when DeBrusk cut around Jake Gardiner off the rush and slipped a shot through Andersen’s fivehole at an electric TD Garden.
Pastrnak then put it away with 8:21 to play when he beat Andersen after Marchand won a battle behind the Toronto net. Marchand added his goal with 51 seconds left in the third.