Bruins Discharge Leafs in Game 7

Playoff hockey is a higher level in intensity both on and off the ice. The players know that every move counts in the playoffs. The fans know that their energy plays its own unique role in the game. And while the playoffs are extreme, with the exception of perhaps the Stanley Cup Finals, there is nothing more fierce and palpable than a Game 7, no matter what round. It is that do or die experience for both teams, where they must each put it on the line to continue. Such was the case for the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. Of course, a Game 7 between the Bruins and the Maple Leafs is actually nothing new – these two teams seem to take it to the limit each time they find themselves competing against each other in the postseason. It happened when they met in 2013 and again in 2018. So perhaps it was inevitable that they would take it all the way again in 2019.

What perhaps was different in this Game 7 was who stepped up to put the Boston Bruins on the board. Everyone expected the top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and Danton Heinen to notch the goals. However, the Bruins got scoring from their bottom six to get things started in the first period. Joakim Nordstrom put Boston on the board first at 14:29 of the opening period, while Marcus Johansson gave them a little breathing room at 17:46. They took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

It was perhaps a very good thing that they did, because they seemed to get away from their game a bit and without the stellar play of Tuukka Rask between the pipes, it could have been a completely different story by the end of the second. Rask did indeed keep his team in the game.

“No, that’s not overstating it,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy of Rask’s importance during the second period. “I think that’s accurate. I believe he was our best player. And in the second period, we broke down. We had a tough time moving the puck out of our zone. He was there for us.”

The Leafs were outshooting the Bruins and hemming them in their own end much too frequently during the middle period. Rask stopped 12 of the 13 shots he saw in that twenty, allowing only the John Tavares’ wrister 3:54 into the second.

“It was tipped. I think whoever the back-checker was got his stick on Tavares’ stick before he wanted to release. It was kind of the same play as on [Marc-Andre] Fleury the other night. You’re kind of sitting there, ‘there’s no way I didn’t just react to that shot.’ When I look at that replay it kind of makes sense, the release point was kind of earlier, so it throws you off,” Rask described.

After that, Rask shut the door for the period and what turned out to be the rest of the game. 

As the teams got back at it in the third period, it was clear that the next goal could undoubtedly tilt the ice in favor of whichever team got it. Bruin Sean Kuraly, who missed much of the series due to injury and had only returned in Game 5, stepped up big, notching his first of the postseason at 2:40 of the final twenty.

Postgame, both Bergeron and Rask were confident that Kuraly would make that goal, as they shared during the postgame media scrums. Kuraly’s thoughts? “I wish that I felt that way. You know, I think when I’m thinking the least amount is when I kind of find myself making good plays. So you know, it’s kind of like I don’t really know what was going on at the time. I just, was just playing, kind of taking what was next and, you know, I just found myself close to the net and figured I’d put it on net really,” Kuraly said. “Noel [Acciari] made a good play coming out of the zone, and then I got a little room in the neutral zone and I just found myself in the slot all of a sudden and just put it on net really. They don’t usually go in for me, but that was a good one and a big one and I think you can see by the way I reacted how I felt about that goal, and so if you want to know, just, you can watch it again I think.”

And it seemed from that point that the Bruins shifted into a higher gear. Even when they found themselves down a man for a too many men on the ice penalty, they refused to give the Leafs any momentum.

Toronto’s head coach, Mike Babcock, aggressively pulled Frederik Andersen with three minutes remaining in an effort to try and pull within one goal and perhaps push the game to overtime. However, the Bruins were feeling it and Charlie Coyle got an empty-netter at 17:26 to give the Bruins a 4-1 lead. Coach Babcock pulled Andersen again, and just as the clock ticked to the last second, Bergeron put another puck in the empty net to give the Bruins the 5-1 victory.

The Bruins have little time to bask in their win. It was announced shortly after the game finished that Game 1 of Round 2 would take place on Thursday night at TD Garden as the Bruins take on the Columbus Blue Jackets who managed to sweep the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 1.