Bruins stave off Maple Leafs

Sports shorts

Jake DeBrusk scored his second goal of the game to break a third-period tie, and the Boston Bruins came from behind to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 again, winning 7-4 on Wednesday night to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Kasperi Kapanen put Toronto ahead 4-3 with a short-handed goal in the second, but Boston scored four times in the third period to pull away. Torey Krug tied it, DeBrusk gave Boston the lead with 14:35 to play, David Pastrnak added a goal with 8:21 left to help clinch it, and Brad Marchand lofted one into the empty net with 51 seconds left to set off a celebration in the stands.

Tuukka Rask stopped just 20 of 24 shots for Boston, which will play the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round starting Saturday.

Frederik Andersen had 29 saves for the Maple Leafs, who have not won a playoff series since 2004. They came close in the first round in 2013, when they rallied from a three-games-to-one deficit against Boston and took a 4-1 in Game 7, but the Bruins rallied to win it in overtime.

Danton Heinen scored his first NHL postseason goal, Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, and David Krejci had three assists for the Bruins.

Patrick Marleau scored twice for the Maple Leafs, who won again won backto-back games after falling behind 3-1 in the series. Game 6 came in Toronto on the night that a man drove a van onto a crowded sidewalk in the city, killing 10 people and injuring more than a dozen others.

The teams combined for five goals in the first period before Toronto scored twice in the second, taking a 4-3 lead when Kapanen beat Marchand to a loose puck and then held him off, skidding to a stop in front of Rask before poking the around his left skate.

In the third, the Bruins scored two 4-on-4 goals after matching penalties opened up the ice. Krug made it 4-4 on a slapper from the point just 1:10 in, and then DeBrusk scored the goahead goal when he outmuscled Jake Gardiner in the slot and put it between Andersen’s legs.

NBA

RAPTORS PREVAIL» DeMar DeRozan scored 32 points, Kyle Lowry had 17 points and 10 assists and the Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards 108-98 on Wednesday night in Game 5 of the first-round series.

Toronto rebounded after losing Games 3 and 4 in Washington to take a 3-2 series lead back to Washington for Game 6 on Friday night.

The only team in the NBA to avoid a threegame losing streak this season, the Raptors went 5-0 following back-toback losses during the regular season, and have not lost three straight since last year’s secondround sweep against Cleveland.