The Bruins struggled, once again, to eliminate the Maple Leafs and finally make it to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Toronto pushed hard for another chance and tied the series to make it to Game 7. Joseph Woll played unbelievably incredible for the Leafs for the second game straight, only allowing one goal in both games, and William Nylander scored both goals for Toronto. Morgan Geekie scored the lone goal for Boston just before the buzzer to avoid getting shutout. The Maple Leafs and Bruins meet again for the final game of the first round on Saturday, May 4th at the TD Garden.
Related Post: An update on Four Injured Boston Bruins
Bruins lineup against the Maple Leafs:
Marchand – Coyle – Geekie
DeBrusk – Zacha – Pastrnak
van Riemsdyk – Frederic – Brazeau
Beecher – Boqvist – Maroon
Lohrei – McAvoy
Lindholm – Carlo
Wotherspoon – Shattenkirk
Swayman
Ullmark
Maple Leafs lineup against the Bruins:
Bertuzzi – Domi – Marner
Knies – Tavares – Nylander
Robertson – Holmberg – Gregor
Dewar – Kampf – Jarnkrok
Rielly – Lyubushkin
Benoit – McCabe
Edmundson – Liljegren
Woll
Samsonov
The first period had been completely scoreless, the Maple Leafs outshot the Bruins 12-1 after the opening 20 minutes. Boston had no shots on goal until Jake DeBrusk’s shot at 11:38.
William Nylander opened the scoring to give Toronto a 1-0 lead late in the middle frame with 54.8 left on the clock. His shot went off the knee of Charlie McAvoy right at the top of the goal crease coming from above the right face-off circle.
In the third, Woll made sure to keep it at 1-0 for Toronto when he made a glove save on Charlie Coyle after a scramble in front of the net. Later into the final frame, William Nylander put the Maple Leafs up 2-0 when he scored with a backhand deke on a breakaway between Jeremy Swayman’s pads after he had received a pass from Matthew Knies in the neutral zone. Morgan Geekie cut it just before the buzzer to keep the Bruins from being shutout when he put in a rebound below the left circle for a 2-1 final.
William Nylander on scoring twice and sticking with it after the scoreless first period: “It was nice to get on the board, scoring two goals… I think it was probably our team effort tonight. We battled and competed an entire 60, and Woll was incredible for us as well,” – “We were positive. I mean, 12 to 1 is obviously good, a good look for us. We just knew that we had to keep battling. These games are not easy to win, so we just got to keep grinding the entire 60, and if it needs to go into overtime, keep grinding there too.”
Joseph Woll on the opportunity to have Game 7 in Boston, defense in front, and not getting the shutout: “Very excited. It’s a great building to play in and it’s going to be a great game,” – “It was awesome to see them in front of me. It gives me a lot of confidence back there when our group has been playing like that the past couple of games… guys are laying out blocking shots and coming up big in those moments – For my mindset, it’s about the win. That’s the most important thing right now, and that’s where my head’s at… I was just happy when I saw the guys coming towards me and giving me fist bumps for winning the game.”
Brad Marchand on the loss and the game overall: “It’s a tight game. They started well in every game and they are prepared to play the first shift, and we need to be better in that area. I think we had maybe one game where we started as good or better than them. The last couple of games, they’ve started really hard and kind of carry the momentum through the first period. So, we have to do a much better job there.”
David Pastrnak on the game overall and the 2-1 loss: “I honestly think today we had a couple of looks in the first period and we could have scored a goal… I don’t think we got much better as the game went on. We need to be much better at the start, that’s for sure, in our next game.”
Notes:
– Joseph Woll made a total of 22 saves for Toronto in his second straight start, and Jeremy Swayman made a total of 24 saves for Boston.
– The Maple Leafs played without Auston Matthews for the second game straight.
– William Nylander hasn’t scored since March 26th and has missed the first three games of the series due to an undisclosed injury. He ended the regular season with four assists in his final 11 games and went without a point in both Game 4 and Game 5. Nylander’s total final stats from the regular season – 98 points; 40 goals and 58 assists in 82 regular-season games.
Nylander became the fourth player in Leafs history to account for each of the team’s goals in a win to avoid being eliminated. He follows Darcy Tucker (Game 5 of the 2002 Eastern Conference), Dave Keon (Game 7 of the 1964 Stanley Cup Final), and Ken Doraty (Game 5 of the 1933 Stanley Cup Final).
– Making his series debut, Noah Gregor took Ryan Reaves’ spot in the lineup. He had one shot in 8:21 of ice time.
