Bruins-Maple Leafs Live: Patrice Bergeron’s Game-Winner Wins Series for B’s

Final, Bruins 5-4 : The Bruins win. The. Bruins. Win.

Patrice Bergeron cleans up the rebound of a Brad Marchand shot, and the Bruins win it in overtime 5-4.

Overtime, 4:21, 4-4: Tyler Seguin just got a shot on goal, but it was right into James Reimer’s chest.

Overtime, 2:54, 4-4: Zdeno Chara with the Bruins’ best chance of OT, a slap shot wide of the net.

Overtime, 2:11, 4-4: The Leafs get overtime’s best chance so far, but the Bruins get a big save from Tuukka Rask.

Overtime, 0:01, 4-4: It’s time for overtime. Don’t forget to breathe everyone.

End third period, 4-4: Overtime. In Game 7.

Third period, 19:10, 4-4: Holy bleep.

The Bruins have tied the score. Patrice Bergeron scores from the point with Zdeno Chara getting traffic in front.

Third period, 18:38, Maple Leafs 4-3: The Bruins, with the extra attacker on, have gotten within one.

Milan Lucic just cleaned up a rebound in front of the net and bangs it home. There’s still some time left…

Third period, 18:25, Maple Leafs 4-2: The Bruins’ net is empty.

Third period, 15:26, Maple Leafs 4-2; The Bruins have turned up the offensive heat, but they still have nothing to show for it. They’re putting shots on net, but their low-quality chances from the point or the tops of the dots. Once again, there’s a ton of puck cycling along the boards, and not much of anything else.

The Maple Leafs are not afraid to just hang out in the defensive zone, apparently, similar to Game 5 where the B’s attempted a comeback in the third as well. They’ll probably have chances, but converting them is a whole different story.

Third period, 9:18, Maple Leafs 4-2: Is there a good chance the Bruins come back? No, not really. Is the game over yet? Technically, no.

The Bruins just cut the lead in two with a goal from Nathan Horton, and the Bruins now trail by two.

Third period, 8:58, Maple Leafs 4-1: It’s starting to feel like the Bruins are just playing out the string here.

They do have six shots on goal here in the third — that equals their total in the second period — and they’re up to 19 for the game. However, there really haven’t been any good scoring chances, as the Leafs have done a good job of clearing out any potential second-chance opportunities.

Third period, 5:29, Maple Leafs 4-1: This one is looking like it might be just about over.

Phil Kessel is at it again, and this time it’s on the defensive end. The forward blocked a Milan Lucic shot, and then took off down the ice where he eventually fed Nazem Kadri for a goal on a 2-on-1.

Third period, 2:09, Maple Leafs 3-1: Well, it’s pretty fitting that Phil Kessel has had a great series, and he may be the one who just sent the Bruins to vacation.

Kessel cleaned up a rebound at the Bruins’ net, and Tuukka Rask was way too far away from the puck on the other side of the crease to get back and stop the rebound chance.

Third period, 0:01, Maple Leafs 2-1: Well, here we go. The Bruins are 20 minutes away from elimination, as we begin play here in the third.

Second period reaction: The Bruins are playing against a goalie who has been shaky with rebounds all series long. The Bruins have won 29 of 36 faceoffs through two periods. Yet, the Bruins only have 13 shots through two periods.

That’s becoming the story for the Bruins, as we find ourselves looking at another “meh” two-period effort from a team that is now 20 minutes away from coughing up a 3-1 series lead and heading home for the summer.

The Bruins’ offense remains the issue, as they’ve actually done a pretty good job without Dennis Seidenberg. They’ve stepped up in a big way, and have limited the really good chances for Toronto, whose second-period goal came on a shot from the point that had a lot of traffic in front.

Once again, the lack of production from the top two lines — or the guys who should be on those top two lines — is just head-scratching. Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton, Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand have combined for, wait for it, zero shots on goal through two periods.

End second period, Maple Leafs 2-1: The Bruins possessed the puck late in the period on that power play, but they couldn’t do anything with it. That’s thanks in large part to an unwillingness to shoot. Not only do they look tired, they look tight.

They’ll have 8 seconds on the power play to open the third period.

Second period, 18:08, Maple Leafs 2-1: The Bruins have a chance to tie it up before the period ends, and they’ll get it on the power play.

Joffrey Lupul was just called for tripping.

Second period, 15:14, Maple Leafs 2-1: The Bruins, as they have all year, just turned in a fantastic penalty kill. It was a PK that produced chances as well, which is something else we’ve seen all year.

The level of nasty is getting picked up, too. Joffrey Lupul and Tuukka Rask just got tangled up in the Boston net and they exchange some swipes and such.

Second period, 13:02, Maple Leafs 2-1: The Maple Leafs get another power play after Milan Lucic takes what was kind of a dumb penalty.

Lucic got into a shoving match with Dion Phaneuf behind the Toronto net, and the Toronto captain eventually just put his hands down and Lucic kept going. The Boston forward gets the rouging penalt.y

Second period, 10:38, Maple Leafs 2-1: The Bruins are starting to look like a tired team that’s undermanned, and that’s not good news for B’s fans.

The Bruins have just 11 shots on goal through a period and a half, and they’re still trying to fend off the Toronto attack, which shows no signs of letting up. We’ve still yet to see Dennis Seidenberg in the second period, and if we haven’t seen him by now, it’s unlikely he’s going to magically heal in this one.

That’s a loss that the B’s — who are playing two rookie D-men — are already starting to feel.

Second period, 5:48, Maple Leafs 2-1: The Bruins couldn’t do anything with the power play, and the Maple Leafs just made them pay for it a couple of minutes later.

Cody Franson just ripped a blast from the right point by Tuukka Rask for the defenseman’s second goal of the game, and Toronto has its first lead of Game 7.

The Maple Leafs did a great job of getting traffic in front of Rask, and it’s unlikely he ever saw the blast from the point.

Second period, 4:25, 1-1: The Bruins can’t get anything on the power play.

Tyler Seguin had a great chance from the right circle, but he missed the net. That’s becoming a recurring theme in this series.

Second period, 0:33, 1-1: The Bruins get another power play. This time it’s when Nazem Kadri interferes with Johnny Boychuk. The Boston defenseman went crashing into the boards, but he appears to be OK.

Second period, 0:01, 1-1: The second period is underway.

Dennis Seidenberg was out on the ice out of the room skating very gingerly.  He took a couple of quick twirls and then back to the bench. Looked painful.

First period reaction: That was, at the very least, a very entertaining first period.

The big thing we’ll be keeping an eye on once the second period begins will be whether or not Dennis Seidenberg returns to the ice. The veteran defenseman played just two shifts in the first period. According to reports, the D-man came onto the ice at one point and took a quick twirl, but he obviously didn’t return to the game. That led to increased minutes for everyone else, including Zdeno Chara who played 10:34 in the first. Matt Bartkowski played a fine period scoring his first career goal and having a solid period defensively, which included a big hit on Joffrey Lupul.

Up front, Claude Julien finally made an adjustment with his lines by moving Jaromir Jagr up to the second line alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. It hasn’t produced anything in terms of goals yet, but they had a couple of good shifts. That’s a little more than you could say about the line previously, so it’s a step in the right direction. Tyler SEguin is now down on the third line where they haven’t done much of anything, but that’s not anything new in this series.

End first period, 1-1: The first period comes to an end, and we still haven’t seen Dennis SEidenberg since 1:44 of the period.

First period, 15:14, 1-1: The Bruins are starting to take some heat from the Maple Leafs, but Tuukka Rask is doing a nice job of keeping it tied.

He just made a big save on former Bruins prospect Joe Colborne as Colborne picked up a loose puck on the right wing and walked in fairly alone.

He did so after Matt Bartkowski pinned Joffrey Lupul to the boards with a textbook hip check. Bartkowski is having a nice game in the early going.

He’ll have to be better, though, as Dennis Seidenberg hasn’t played in about 10 minutes, with what you have to think is an injury of some sort.

First period, 12:23, 1-1: The Bruins have made a lineup change, that they’ve stuck with so far. Jaromir Jagr is up on the second line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, and Tyler Seguin has been dropped down with Chris Kelly and Riche Peverley.

First period, 9:35, 1-1: The game is tied, thanks to another power-play goal from the Maple Leafs.

Cody Franson does a little bit of redeeming as he cleans up a rebound in front of Tuukka Rask and jams home the tying goal. Dougie Hamilton couldn’t control the rebound and Franson jumped all over it.

First period, 7:41, Bruins 1-0: Tuukka Rask just made his biggest save of the game so far, but the Bruins will have to kill off another penalty.

Rask stopped Joffrey Lupul on a breakaway, but the Toronto forward was caught with a high-stick after the play, so the Bruins will have to kill off another penalty without one of their best killers.

First period, 5:39, Bruins 1-0: The Bruins strike first.

Matt Bartkowski just scored his first career playoff goal, after a horrible giveaway from Cody Franson. David Krejci did a great job of getting in front of James Reimer.

First period, 4:12, 0-0: The Bruins killed off the penalty, but not without a couple of close chances, including a puck that rolled through the paint.

First period, 2:00, 0-0: The Maple Leafs will get the first power play of the game.

Rich Peverley picked up a tripping penalty and followed that up with a roughing penalty after the play. Nazem Kadri will go with him, though, as he’s sent off for holding.

First period, 0:01, 0-0: It’s go time. Game 7 is underway.

7:01 p.m.: So, as a giant Bruins flag makes its way across the fans in the lower bowl, NESN’s Naoko Funayama just tweeted that the Bruins aren’t going with the same line up for Game 7.

According to her, the Bruins have scratched veteran defenseman Wade Redden, meaning that both Dougie Hamilton and Matt Bartkowski will be in the lineup. That’s a bold move to say the least.

6:50 p.m.: Meant to touch on this earlier, but Tyler Bozak is out of the Toronto lineup. He didn’t even make the trip back to Boston. He was also out for Game 6.

6:38 p.m.: Pregame warmups are currently going on, and it looks like there will be no lineup changes fro the Bruins — at least if things stay the same as the pregame skate.

Here are the lines, in case you haven’t been paying attention for some reason.

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 — Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg — Adam McQuaid
Wade Redden — Dougie Hamilton

6:13 p.m.: Good evening and welcome to TD Garden for what some are saying is an unlikely Game 7 showdown between the Bruins and Maple Leafs.

Claude Julien just got done speaking to the media, and the biggest news that came from that is that Andrew Ference is out for Game 7. He was also out for Game 6, so he’s obviously dealing with something pretty substantial. According to one report, Ference had a walking boot on as he entered the Garden.

2:30 p.m.: Now it’s time to take a look at some meaningless stats that will mean absolutely nothing in Game 7, but we bring them up to pass the time and fill the space.

So here we go.

The Bruins are 12-11 all time in Game 7s. The Maple Leafs are 12-9 in the same situation.

This is the fifth time that the Bruins have been taken to a Game 7 in a series in which they’ve led 3-1. They’re 2-2 in the other four times that’s happened. The most recent, of course, came in 2010 when the Bruins blew a 3-0 series lead, and they blew a 3-1 lead in 2004 against Montreal as well.

This is the third time in history that the Bruins and Leafs have met in a Game 7. It’s the first since 1959, which Toronto won at Boston.

The Maple Leafs have come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series just once in their history. That came in 1942 when they came back from down 3-0 to beat the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final.

All of these stats, however, mean absolutely nothing because what in the world does 1942 have to do with Game 7 of this series? Not a whole lot, obviously. But it’s fun to look at, I guess.

2 p.m.: The Bruins obviously aren’t doing much of anything before Game 7 given the quick turnaround between Games 6 and 7. Oh, that, and the fact that they woke up in Toronto.

The B’s got back to Boston just a few hours ago after spending the night in Toronto. The team plane had a malfunction, and they were stuck in Toronto until about 8 a.m. this morning. Here’s a pretty good account of the Bruins’ night, which featured a late-night meal. The owners of the restaurant the B’s dined at are on their way to Boston for Game 7 after the Boston organization hooked them up with tickets.

Bruins players are scheduled to be available to the media at 4:30 Monday afternoon, and head coach Claude Julien will meet with the media at 5:50 p.m.

8 a.m. ET: Just a few days ago, it seemed like the Bruins were a lock to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The B’s held a 3-1 lead in their series with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and all seemed good for the Black and Gold.

However, as has been the case for much of the year, inconsistency caught up with the Bruins, and now they’re left to play a Game 7 with their season on the line. The Bruins (will eventually) return to Boston on Monday, and they’ll have the Leafs waiting for them in a winner-take-all, do-or-die showdown. The B’s will already be up against it, after malfunctions with the team’s airplane forced the Bruins to stay in Toronto on Sunday night. They were scheduled to fly into Boston on Monday morning, just hours ahead of what could be their final game of the season.

That’s not where the bad omens end, either. The Bruins and Leafs, of course, will be forced to play on consecutive nights. The B’s were just 3-5 on the back end of back-to-backs this season, and they were just 1-8-1 on the final game of stretches in which they played three games in four nights, which is what they’ll do Monday night.

However, the Bruins have been here before. This will be the eighth Game 7 that they’ve played under head coach Claude Julien. They enter Monday night with a 3-4 record in those games, with all three wins coming in the team’s 2011 Stanley Cup run. The Bruins were knocked out in the first round last season, when they lost to the Washington Capitals in Game 7 of the first round.