Great Dane takes bite out of Bruins
Andersen’s 42-save effort keeps Leafs alive in Game 5 with 4-3 nail-biter in Boston
BOSTON — With his Toronto Maple Leafs team facing elimination Saturday night, coach Mike Babcock hoped to push the right buttons.
Mission accomplished for Babcock at TD Garden, but not without some help from the man who has been Toronto’s top performer in 2017-18.
With Nazem Kadri back against the Boston Bruins after serving a threegame suspension for his hit on Tommy Wingels in Game 1, Babcock moved his forward pieces around until he found the right fit.
Yet the Leafs needed another terrific performance from goaltender Frederik Andersen to win Game 5 as the Great Dane made 42 saves in Toronto’s 4-3 victory.
“Freddie was great, gave us a chance and made some huge saves for us,” Kadri said.
“Depth is our key. That’s what has given us success the whole year and we were able to get contributions out of each and every single line. It worked out.”
The Bruins lead the Eastern Conference best-of-seven series 3-2. Game 6 will be contested Monday night at Air Canada Centre.
Most of the third period was in the Leafs’ end and Andersen allowed just one goal, by Noel Acciari, on 20 shots. Shortly after the Acciari goal at 5:56, Andersen stretched across his crease to steal the equalizer from David Pastrnak. Incredibly, Pastrnak had 18 shot attempts, including 10 shots on goal, and did not have a point.
In total, the Leafs had 21 shots on goal and 39 shot attempts; the Bruins had 45 shots on goal and 90 shot attempts.
It helped Boston that it had six power plays to the Leafs’ one. The Bruins scored one power-play goal and did not score on a two-man advantage that lasted 94 seconds in the second period.
“Any time you’re short-handed six times — it was six times, I don’t know if you noticed, and one for 5-on-3 — ridiculous,” Babcock said. “The hardest part for us was we couldn’t get anybody on the ice (other than penalty killers), they just sat there (on the bench) and froze to death. Half the group was dying and half the group was freezing.”
Said Leafs defenceman Ron Hainsey, who led all skaters with 26:06 of ice time including more than eight minutes while short-handed: “Just happy we won, man . ... It was not pretty. Way too many penalties. Way too much time in our own end once we got the 4-1 lead. But we held on. Freddie was great.”
Andersen stopped all 15 shots on goal in the first period, giving the Leafs a chance to take a 2-0 lead.
Kadri took the warm-up and morning skate between his usual linemates Patrick Marleau and Mitch Marner, but it was Tomas Plekanec at centre on the line for the opening faceoff. Plekanec was good in that spot in Kadri’s absence and Babcock had warned in the morning that he was not sure which centres would play on which lines.
Kadri was between William Nylander and Andreas Johnsson and had instant chemistry with each, producing a goal; in Nylander’s spot on a line with Auston Matthews and Zach Hyman was Connor Brown. That trio, which has been together in the past, also produced a goal.
Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk had Kasperi Kapanen on their right wing. Two more goals were supplied by Bozak and van Riemsdyk.
The Bruins had star centre Patrice Bergeron back after he missed Game 4 with an upper-body injury.
The Leafs chased Tuukka Rask with four goals on 13 shots, the fourth coming at 11:55 of the second period by van Riemsdyk on a power play.
That goal gave the Leafs a 4-1 lead in what can only be described as a wild middle period with four goals (two by each club) coming in the final 10 minutes 15 seconds.
David Backes got Boston the scoresheet at 9:45 when he knocked the puck into the net after it came off the end glass on a shot by Jake DeBrusk.
TD Garden still was abuzz when the Leafs countered 51 seconds later to restore a two-goal lead.
Bozak took a pass from Morgan Rielly and rather than pass to van Riemsdyk, beat Rask with a low shot.