Toronto Maple Leaf Connor Brown celebrates his goal with teammate Auston Matthews as Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins looks on during Game 5 in Boston, on Saturday, April 21, 2018. The Maple Leafs won 4-3.Michael Dwyer/The Associated Press
The Toronto Maple Leafs sure have a funny way to exorcise their demons.
On May 13, 2013 at the TD Garden, the Maple Leafs managed to blow a 4-1 lead in the third period of the seventh and deciding game of their first-round NHL playoff series against the Boston Bruins and lose 5-4 in overtime. It was the most traumatizing loss for the team and their fans in recent history.
And here they were five years later, in the same building with a 4-1 lead late in the second period on the Bruins, a lead that, just like five years ago, no one expected them to have. But from that point through the third period, the Leafs seemingly lost the ability to defend, to get the puck out of their own end and an awful repeat of history beckoned.
But somehow, through luck and most of all goaltender Frederik Andersen’s ability to face 20 Bruins shots in the third period and stop all but one, the Leafs managed to hold on for a 4-3 win. The demon was slain. They will live for another two days at least, when they reconvene for Game 6 Monday at the Air Canada Centre with the Bruins’ lead in the series down to 3-2.
Nazem Kadri, who returned from a three-game suspension Saturday night to play a key role in the game, was one of four current Maple Leafs who were part of that collapse five years ago. But he and his younger teammates, most of whom were in high school and watching on television then, brushed aside any suggestion that game was hanging over their heads as the Bruins came at them hard in the final period.
“Not really. That’s in the past,” Kadri said. “Maybe it’s time we turned the page on that one.”
Connor Brown, who scored his first NHL playoff goal to get the Leafs rolling in the first period, felt the same.
“You got to look forward, right?” he said. “There’s no sense, no good in looking back. We had a really gutsy win on the road here in a really hostile building.
“We’re going back to the ACC where we love to play. Our fans are going to be exited. Right now we’re just thinking about Game 6.”
To a man, the Maple Leafs can thank Andersen for the win. He bounced back from a couple of sub-par outings to be a wall against the Bruins when they turned up the pressure on the Leafs, outshooting them 20-5 in the third period and 45-21 overall.
“We just tried to bounce back,” Andersen said. “We know we left one out there in [losing] Game 4 at home - I’m not sure what day it is anymore - but it’s nice to bring it back to Toronto.
“[Bad games] always happen. You just have to respond the right way. That’s hockey for you. You just have to respond. Things can go wrong and you can feel the bounces aren’t going your way but you just have to battle through it. We just did that.”
The signs were not looking good for the Leafs before the game. It was apparent Bruins star Patrice Bergeron would be back in the lineup after missing the previous game with an undisclosed injury. He and linemates Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak were why the Leafs were down 3-1 in the series going into the game.
Over in the Maple Leafs dressing room, head coach Mike Babcock continued to shuffle his lines in a bid to postpone elimination from the playoffs. He moved Brown to right wing on Auston Matthews’ line with William Nylander sliding down in the lineup to play with centre Tomas Plekanec and Andreas Johnsson. Kadri was with his regular linemates, Mitch Marner and Patrick Marleau.
“[Kadri] being back changes things for us,” Babcock said after the morning skate. “I haven’t decided which centre is going to play on which line, to tell you the truth, on a few of them. By game-time tonight we’ll know, see how guys are going in the first five minutes and go from there.”
Babcock did not even wait that long, shifting Kadri to the third line between Johnsson and Nylander to start the game. He left Plekanec with Marleau and Marner, perhaps because they played so well together in two games while Kadri was suspended. In any event, the changes paid off almost immediately.
Matthews came out with a purposeful air and was far more effective than he had been in the series to that point. By the middle of the period, Kadri and Johnsson were clicking like they had played together for five years.
Four minutes after Brown scored the first playoff goal of his NHL career, Andreas Johnsson did the same. He finished a beautiful give-and-go, taking a stretch pass from Kadri and beating Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask.
It was a stunning beginning for the Bruins, who took control of the series by pouncing on the Leafs at the start of games. But the Bruins were still counter-punching strongly.
The second period was a strange one for the Leafs as they took a commanding lead but ended the period barely hanging on as waves of Bruins came at them during a series of bad penalties.
This set the Leafs back on their heels and Tyler Bozak’s line, sent out after the goal, was under siege. But just as everyone was wondering why on earth Babcock sent this line out, there was a quick relay of stretch passes again, with Morgan Rielly finding Bozak in front for a goal 51 seconds after the Bruins scored.
One minute and 19 seconds after that, with the Bruins taking a penalty, James van Riemsdyk suddenly reappeared in the series with one of his patented shots to the top of the net to put the Leafs ahead 4-1. The goal also chased Rask from the net with backup Anton Khudobin taking over.
At this point, all those memories of that awful night in 2013 came flooding in. A 4-1 lead in Boston? As the third period approached? Ye gods.
In short order the Leafs took a series of penalties. When Bozak and defenceman Roman Polak took minors 27 seconds apart the Leafs had to defend a five-on-three Boston power play for one minute and 34 seconds. They managed to do that with a tremendous effort from Zaitsev, Ron Hainsey, Brown and Andersen, who made a couple of big saves.
“I don’t remember. Tired,” Hainsey said between bites of a post-game pizza when he was asked how he felt after being on the ice for the entire five-on-three. “We survived, did what we had to do.”
But this is a team that appears incapable of helping itself out. After they finally killed off the penalties, the Leafs stood around and watched the Bruins cycle the puck in their zone. A goal seemed inevitable and Sean Kuraly got it at 17:18 to cut the Leafs’ lead to 4-2.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, then Johnsson took a bad hooking penalty – Leaf fans were outraged on Twitter about the work of referees Francis Charron and Brad Watson but this was on the Leafs, at least until a dubious interference call on Dermott early in the third period. However, thanks to a big dose of luck they managed to escape to the third, where they finished killing off the penalty.
Some escape, though. Bruins forward Noel Acciari knocked in a loose puck at 5:56 to cut Toronto’s lead to 4-3 and set up the heart-stopping ride over the rest of the game.
By the end of the game, the Leafs penalty killers could say they had their best game of the series against the fearsome Boston power play. They killed off five of the six Bruins power plays and scored on their only power play.
“I’m just happy we won, man,” Hainsey said. “We’ve got another day tomorrow, Monday. We’ll go from there.
“It wasn’t pretty. Way too many penalties, obviously. Way too much time in our own end once we got the 4-1 lead. But we held on, Freddie was great.”
Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews says he expects an “unbelievable” atmosphere in Toronto on Monday for Game 6 against the Boston Bruins. The Leafs claimed a 4-3 victory on Saturday in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
The Canadian Press