Final, Bruins 5-2: That’s it and that’s all. The Bruins win it 5-2, and they take the 2-1 lead in the series.
Third period, 18:43, Bruins 5-2: The Bruins save their best for last.
A couple of great shifts answer the growing momentum the Leafs had built, and eventually, it’s David Krejci who scores the empty-net goal.
This one is over.
Third period, 15:11, Bruins 4-2: The Bruins are just trying to survive the third period at this point.
Tuukka Rask is standing on his head, as the B’s are no doubt counting down the minutes and seconds until this one is over.
Third period, 9:58, Bruins 4-2: We’re going to play some 4-on-4 hockey after things get a little chippy in front of the benches.
James van Riemsdyk gets his nose dirty (again), and then that leads to Brad Marchand and Phil Kessel getting into it. They get the penalties, as they’re sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Third period, 8:42, Bruins 4-2: The third period has been played at a pretty furious pace, and we just went three or four minutes without a stoppage.
The Maple Leafs, to their credit, have been very good in the third period. They came out with a good jump, and that only intensified with Phil Kessel’s goal.
Now it’s on the Bruins to weather the storm. They can’t get too passive, though, and they must continue to come at Toronto. If they do, the two-goal lead should be enough, despite how much better the Leafs are playing.
Third period, 0:47, Bruins 4-2: The Bruins have done a good job of clearing rebounds all game long, until now.
Dennis Seidenberg wasn’t able to clear the rebound from a James van Riemsdyk shot, and Phil Kessel jumps all over it. Kessel buries the rebound to make things a little more interesting.
Third period, 0:10, Bruins 4-1: The third period is underway, with the Bruins looking to kill off Milan Lucic’s penalty.
Second period reaction: That’s another great period for the Bruins, who look much more like the B’s we saw in Game 1 than in Game 2.
Then again, so do the Maple Leafs. Toronto has been incredibly sloppy with the puck, and the breakouts and play in their own zone remain the issue. Both Jake Gardiner and Ryan O’Byrne had some major issues with the puck behind the goal line, and that was made worse by Jaromir Jagr. The Boston forward was able to steal the puck after the Toronto D-men fumbled around with it. Jagr was able to feed Rich Peverley who buried his chance. Then it was Phil Kessel who coughed it up later in the period, which led to Daniel Paille’s shorthanded goal.
End second period, Bruins 4-1: The second period is over, and the Bruins are in the driver’s seat with the three-goal lead.
Second period, 19:27, Bruins 4-1: There goes the Boston power play.
Milan Lucic was called for hooking, and the power play ends.
Second period, 18:04, Bruins 4-1: Now the Bruins can really put it away.
Nazem Kadri was called for boarding Dennis Seidenberg, and the Bruins go on the power play with hopes of increasing the lead to four before the period ends.
Second period, 16:37, Bruins 4-1: Phil Kessel just made a bad turnover, and Daniel Paille made him pay in the worst way.
Kessel turned it over at his own blue line on the power play, and Daniel Paille said “Thanks, Phil,” before scoring a shorthanded goal.
Boston has the 4-1 lead now.
Second period, 15:24, Bruins 3-1: The Bruins just got sloppy with a line change, and it costs them in the form of a penalty.
The Bruins were caught with too many men on the ice, and that means another power play for Toronto. Tyler Seguin will serve the penalty.
Second period, 14:35, Bruins 3-1: Just 50 seconds later, the Bruins respond.
Milan Lucic does a masterful job of setting up Nathan Horton, who just buried a shot under the crossbar to push the lead back to two.
Second period, 13:45, Bruins 2-1: The first home postseason goal for the Maple Leafs since 2004 belongs to Jake Gardiner.
The young defenseman got the first Toronto goal of the game, a power-play tally, after Chris Kelly was unable to clear the puck. Gardiner beat Tuukka Rask with a wrist shot, thanks to a ton of bodies in front of the net.
Second period, 11:52, Bruins 2-0: It’s another power play for the Maple Leafs.
Tyler Seguin was just called for tripping, and Toronto has the man-advantage again.
Second period, 10:12, Bruins 2-0: The Bruins were not able to score on their shortened power play.
They’re starting to pick up the physical play at the other end, too. Just ask Joffrey Lupul, who was railroaded by Milan Lucic.
At some point, James Reimer’s inability to glove shots will come back to hurt the Leafs. He’s been giving up a ton of second chances on pucks he tries to gloves. He’s simply not catching them. It hasn’t caught up to him yet, but it will.
Second period, 7:45, Bruins 2-0: The Toronto power play ended just as quickly as it began.
Just 46 seconds into the man-advantage, Daniel Paille got loose for a potential breakaway, but he was eventually hooked by Tyler Bozak, who gets called for hooking. We’ll have 1:14 of 4-on-4 before an abbreviated Bruins power play.
Second period, 7:04, Bruins 2-0: The Maple Leafs have a chance to get back into it here.
David Krejci was just called for slashing, which means the Leafs are going on their second power play.
Second period, 5:57, Bruins 2-0: The Bruins didn’t get anything on the power play, but a couple of minutes later, the B’s get on the board.
Jaromir Jagr just did a tremendous job of forechecking, and that led to a horrible turnover from Ryan O’Byrne behind the Toronto net.
Jagr was quick to take advantage of that, stealing the puck away and centering it to Rich Peverley in front. Peverley one-timed it by James Reimer to give Boston a 2-0 lead.
Second period, 2:17, Bruins 1-0: The Bruins have done a good job of controlling the puck here in the second, and it pays off with a power play.
Ryan O’Byrne gets the interference call, and the Bruins have their first man-advantage of Game 3.
Second period, 0:20, Bruins 1-0: The second period is underway.
First period reaction: That was, all things considered, a real good first period for the Bruins.
The crowd was, as expected, pretty wild in the early going. The Bruins did a great job of weathering that to open the game and not let things get away from them. A lot of that stems from Tuukka Rask making a couple of big saves early in the period to keep Toronto off the board, which also allowed the B’s to eventually get going offensively. The transition has been much better in this one, and the Bruins are working the three zones much more efficiently in this game than in Game 2.
The Bruins have done another great job in the face-off circle. They won 10 of the 18 first-period draws, including one big one midway through the period. David Krejci’s clean win got the puck back to the point, where Adam McQuaid was able to put a shot on goal from the point, a shot that got by James Reimer sneaking in over his right shoulder.
We’d be remiss not to give any credit to the Boston third line. While they haven’t found the back of the net yet, they were much better in the first period than they were at any other point during Games 1 and 2. Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly are a combined 9-f0r-10 in the face-off dot, and Jaromir Jagr has been arguably the best player on the ice.
End first period, Bruins 1-0: The first period comes to an end, as the Bruins were able to kill off the penalty. Jaromir Jagr stepped out of the penalty box and went straight to work in the Toronto zone getting a couple of scoring chances for the B’s in the final second.
We’ll break it all down in a bit.
First period, 17:42, Bruins 1-0: It took almost 18 minutes, but we have our first penalty.
Jaromir Jagr is called for tripping, and the Bruins now have a huge penalty kill to make in order to take momentum to the room.
First period, 13:42, Bruins 1-0: The Bruins strike first.
Adam McQuaid just scored his first career playoff goal, and the Bruins have the early lead. David Krejci won a faceoff back to McQuaid at the right point, and the defenseman just put on net. There was plenty of traffic, and James Reimer might not have even seen the puck. It beat him over the right shoulder, and the B’s take the early lead.
First period, 10:07, 0-0: The Bruins just got the best chance of the game so far, thanks to James Reimer. The Bruins couldn’t convert the best chance of the game so far, thanks to James Reimer.
The goalie tried to glove a shot from Brad Marchand, but couldn’t hold it, and the puck bounced toward the slot. Tyler Seguin pounced on it in the slot and forehand to backhand but was denied by Reimer from in close.
That has seem to given the Bruins a jump, though, after the Leafs brought it pretty strong for a few minutes after the first TV timeout.
First period, 6:11, 0-0: This game has featured a good pace in the early minutes, and it’s starting to get a little chippy, with Adam McQuaid and Zdeno Chara pushing and shoving with Colton Orr and company before the TV timeout.
The Bruins’ third line has been their best line in the early going, and that’s huge for the B’s. We talked earlier about how Jaromir Jagr and that line as a whole need to be better, and so far, they’ve answered the call there. Jagr had a chance from a bad angle to James Reimer’s left, but the Bruins winger couldn’t put it away.
First period, 0:08, 0-0: Game 3 is underway.
6:40 p.m.: And here are the Bruins’ line combinations and defensive pairings straight from the team’s Twitter page. There’s no change in the forward lines, and Andrew Ference returns in place of Dougie Hamilton on the blue line.
Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Tyler Seguin
Rich Peverley — Chris Kelly — Jaromir Jagr
Daniel Paille — Gregory Campbell — Shawn Thornton
Zdeno Chara — Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference — Johnny Boychuk
Wade Redden — Adam McQuaid
6:37 p.m.: Here are the Maple Leafs’ line combinations, via James Mirtle of The Globe and Mail.
Joffrey Lupul– Tyler Bozak — Matt Frattin
Ryan Hamilton — Nazem Kadri — Phil Kessel
James van Riemsdyk — Mikhail Grabovski — Nikolai Kulemin
Colton Orr — Jay McClement — Leo Komarov
6:30 p.m.: The two teams have taken the ice in Toronto for pregame warmups. We’ll have line combinations shortly.
6:15 p.m.: With everything that’s gone in the league since Saturday night’s game, it sure seems like it’s been forever since the Bruins and Maple Leafs last played.
You can get caught up with everything that’s going on around the league by checking out nesn.com/NHL.
3:05 p.m.: It’s tough to argue that the Jaromir Jagr trade was anything but beneficial for the Bruins, after the future Hall of Famer made his impact felt in coming to Boston.
However, the early production from Jagr has seemed to plateau a little bit down the stretch, and that’s carried into the playoffs. Jagr has yet to register a point in the series, is a minus-2 and has looked very sluggish at times. However, Bruins coach Claude Julien isn’t too afraid that Jagr won’t be able to bounce back.
“I think there are a lot of things that come into play here,” Julien explained after practice Sunday. “No. 1, he came, as you know, at the trade deadline, he missed the last couple of games, he’s never had the same linemates. To his defense, it’s important to have some cohesion with your linemates and stuff like that.”
Jagr has also been battling a pretty nasty case of the flu (or flu-like symptoms) as of late, and Julien says Jagr still isn’t back to full health; that could be playing a role in Jagr’s lack of production.
“It’s a little bit of, I don’t think he’s 100 percent yet, and I know he’s told us he doesn’t feel 100 percent yet, but certainly we hope to see that because he’s a good player.”
It would be a huge boost for the Bruins to get Jagr going. The third line that he skates on has yet to really give the Bruins anything, while the other three lines have been pretty solid through two games. If they can something (anything) out of the third line, it should be a big help. That will likely start with Jagr performing better, though.
2:15 p.m.: We’ve already talked about how crazy it’s going to be up in Toronto for Game 3, and so far, we’ve seen plenty that says the city of Toronto is ready to go.
Toronto mayor Rob Ford proclaimed Monday as “Blue and White Day,” calling on Torontonians to wear the colors of the Leafs.
A story in Monday’s edition of The Globe and Mail outlined the craziness going on in the city right now. According to the article, “poor seats” for Monday’s game are getting $300 on the secondardy market. You can read the entire story by clicking here.
12:50 p.m.: The Bruins and Maple Leafs have both wrapped up their respective morning skates, and we really don’t know much about what either team will do lineup-wise in Game 3.
The Bruins held an optional skate this morning, which was well-attended. Only Nathan Horton and Tuukka Rask opted not to skate in advance of Game 3 at Air Canada Centre.
Meanwhile, Toronto head coach Randy Carlyle said that he wasn’t going to reveal any details in regards to his lineup before the game begins. You would think, however, that there wouldn’t be too much change for Carlyle and the Leafs with the way they played in Game 2.
8 a.m. ET: They’ve been waiting for this in Toronto for almost an entire decade, and the Bruins will get to see firsthand what playoff hockey up there really means.
The B’s and Maple Leafs will meet Monday night in Game 3 of their first-round series in the Eastern Conference playoffs series. It will be When the puck drops at Air Canada Centre, it will mark the first playoff game in Toronto since 2004.
The home crowd will have plenty to cheer for, too. The hometown Leafs are coming home after evening the series with an impressive Game 2 victory, bouncing back from being torn apart in Game 1. The crowd was expected to be nuts even before Game 2, and now that the Maple Leafs are coming home with a win to their credit, the B’s have to be expecting a very hostile environment at the ACC.
“They have good crowds during the regular season and you expect to get ramped up during the playoffs,” Milan Lucic told reporters after practice Sunday in Boston. “They’re the center of the hockey world, so there’s definitely a lot to look forward to going into Toronto for Game 3 and 4.”
For the Bruins, it will be about getting back to what made them so successful in a decisive Game 1 win. Boston was sharp in the series opener at both ends of the ice, and they certainly took a step backward in the second game. Bruins coach Claude Julien knows that his team must be much better in Game 3 if they’re going to regain the series lead.
“I thought, overall, our game certainly wasn’t as sharp as it was in Game 1,” Julien said Sunday. “I think the mental part of our game, and again, you’ve heard me say that often, just has to be a little sharper in decision making. It was a physical game and I’m not going to criticize the effort, but the mistakes are what I think were the biggest difference, and they played well. We keep saying the same thing over and over; give them credit, they were a different team, they played well and we knew they were going to play better. We didn’t bring our A-game in [Game 2].”
Julien and the Bruins will get a little reinforcement for Game 3. Veteran defenseman Andrew Ference, who has 107 playoff games to his name, will be eligible to return to the lineup. He missed Game 2 after being suspended for an elbow in the series opener. His return should stabilize the defense pairs for the Bruins after they had to split up the top pairing of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg. That should help Julien in his ongoing chess match with Toronto head coach Randy Carlyle, with the latter looking to avoid the potential top pairing of Chara and Seidenberg when putting his top lines out on the ice. The Leafs did a masterful job of that in Game 2, and that was one of the difference-makers.
Game 3 in Toronto is set to begin at 7 p.m.
