The Boston Bruins pretty much put an ending to the season of the Toronto Maple Leafs last night when they outplayed them and ended the game with a 6-2 win. The Bruins only helped themselves in the playoff hunt with the win.
Glen Murray ended a scoring drought when a shot from rookie defenseman Matt Lashoff tipped off of his skate and went in to the net in the first period while the Bruins had a man advantage on a Toronto roughing penalty. That would be the only goal of the period and the teams headed into the locker room with Boston up 1-0.
Fresh out of the locker room David Krejci scored a goal on his backhand, picking up his first road goal in the NHL, with assists from Marco Sturm and Matt Lashoff. A few minutes later Krejci would return the favor when he hit Marco Sturm with a pass and Sturm finished it off making it a 3-0 game on another Bruin power play. Toronto would strike back about 8 minutes later when Jason Blake slide the puck past Tim Thomas to narrow the gap to 2.
Three minutes into the third period Bruins tough-guy Shawn Thorton knocked in a pass from teammate Milan Lucic. Toronto would begin to look desperate with about six minutes to go, knowing they needed at least a point to stay alive. On a power play Alexei Ponikarovsky slide a rebound just under the stick of Tim Thomas making it a 4-2 game. Less than two minutes later the puck was dumped into the Toronto zone and goaltender Vesa Toskala would come out to play the puck. He may have played it in the restricted zone but got a way with it, bouncing the puck off the glass and it deflected out in front of the gapping net. The Toronto defense would safely clear it to the far boards where Glenn Metropolit would redeem him self from the earlier penalty by sending a perfect pass to the front of the net for Phil Kessel who was able to make one clear sweeping motion and put the puck into the net. The Maple Leafs would again show their desperation by pulling the goaltender with three minutes to play in the game. The plan would back fire when Jeremy Reich put the puck into the empty net, deflating the home team’s crowd.
Tim Thomas came up big in net for the Bruins stopping 28 of 30 shots. While at the other end Vesa Toskala stopped 24 of 29.
Both teams are off on Wednesday and will play the back end game of this home and home and end the season series on Thursday when they play at the TD Banknorth Garden.
from www.sammonroe.net