The Bruins stuck with their goalie rotation for Game 2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and, though they got a very good performance from Linus Ullmark (30 saves), this best-of-seven series is tied at 1-1.
And the Leafs earned the split. They were the better team when it mattered on Tuesday and they finally forged ahead late in the game to take a 3-2 victory back to Toronto for Game 3 on Wednesday.
The Leafs took their first lead of the game, and the series, with 7:54 left in the third. Max Domi made a great aerial pass to Auston Matthews that the Leafs sharpshooter gloved down at the blue line and beat Ullmark on a breakaway.
The B’s got a late power play at 13:57 but they could not do anything with it. Then, with Ullmark pulled for the extra skater, Ilya Samsonov made a terrific save on a Pavel Zacha redirect and, after a mad scramble, Samsonov eventually covered the puck. That was the B’s last best chance, and the Leafs hung on for their first win over the B’s in eight games.
“I didn’t think our urgency was where it needed to be to prevail tonight,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “I don’t think puck management was a detriment to us. I just didn’t think we won enough wall battles to get out of our end successfully.”
Not only did the Leafs take home ice advantage away from the B’s, a shift in team health may be taking place. William Nylander, a 40-goal scorer for the Leafs, missed his second game of the series with an undisclosed injury, but he’s skated the last two days and may be trending toward a return. Meanwhile, the B’s lost defenseman Andrew Peeke when he blocked a shot in the second period. Montgomery did not have an update on him, but he was dearly missed on the penalty kill late in the second when the Leafs tied it.
As for the goaltending situation, Ullmark gave Montgomery no regrets about the change, even though the coach went away from Jeremy Swayman, who’d been lights-out against the Leafs all season, including in Game 1.
“No second-guesses. He was terrific. He made multiple big-time saves. It’s the strength of our team. Both of them played really well. We only scored two goals,” said Montgomery.
Ullmark said he learned he’d get the start on Sunday and he appreciated that. But he gave himself a mixed review.
“There were some good and bad things. There are some things I have to clean up as well,” said Ullmark.
But in the end, the issue with the B’s was not the goaltending but rather the lack of scoring chances and enough offensive zone time.
“I don’t think we’ve played anywhere near as good as we can. I’m not just saying this after the loss. After Game 1 we weren’t where we wanted. We have some work to do. We’ll get some sleep tonight and get back to work tomorrow,” said David Pastrnak.
The answer to the question on everyone’s mind was answered when Ullmark led the B’s out for pregame warmups, signifying that he would be the night’s starter. And he was on his game in the first period as the Leafs had the better of the play but the B’s went into the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.
Some of the story line from Game 1 continued early in Game 2. Jake McCabe took a bad post-whistle crosschecking penalty on Jakub Lauko at 9:52. At 10:18, the B’s had their first lead of the game. Brad Marchand slipped a pretty cross-crease pass to Morgan Geekie, who banked it in off Samsonov.
But before the Garden crowd died down, the Leafs tied the game just 14 seconds later. It looked like the B’s controlled the puck and were about to break out, but the puck bounced to Matthews and he rang a shot off the crossbar. It came out to Max Domi, who at first was stopped by Ullmark but was then able to score on the rebound.
Toronto had the momentum and, at 12:29, they had their first power play when Johnny Beecher was called for hooking. The B’s mostly did a good job of killing it off, but Ullmark was called on to make a big pad save on Matthews, all alone in the slot. The goalie won that round.
It looked like the game would go into the first intermission tied when Samsonov mishandled the puck, giving Charlie Coyle a chance. Coyle shot the puck off the goalie’s mask with 13 seconds left, calling for a stoppage.
On the right dot, Geekie won the faceoff to Pastrnak, who did a great job of holding off Simon Benoit to shovel the puck up to Charlie McAvoy and head to the net. McAvoy moved it to Pavel Zacha, who made a brilliant spinning backhand pass to Pastrnak in the slot and he finished off the work of art with a one-timer goal with just under eight seconds left in the period.
But the Leafs took control of the game in the second period and they thought they may have tied it twice before they finally did with 1:34 left in the period.
On a too-many-men penalty that had Montgomery fuming at his bench, the B’s again did a good job of killing it off until the very end of it, when Calle Jarnkrok had a Grade A chance from the right side of the slot with 5:53 left in the period. Deep in his net, Ullmark made a tremendous glove snare right at the shortside post but the only question was whether the puck crossed the line. It was ruled no goal on the ice and, after a lengthy review, that was upheld.
Then after Matt Grzelcyk was called for interfering with John Tavares in the slot, it looked like the Leafs tied it up almost immediately when Tyler Bertuzzi batted home an aerial rebound. But it didn’t take a long time for the officials to see that Bertuzzi’s stick was well above the crossbar and the goal was washed out.
But on the same kill, Jake DeBrusk just missed breaking up Matthews pass for Tavares and Tavares finally beat Ullmark for keeps over the blocker with 1:34 left in the period.
At that point, it felt like the game was slipping away from the B’s, who were spending more time in their own zone and getting fewer and fewer quality chances at the other end.
“I actually liked our second period until we took the penalties. Then their power play got rolling. They get juice from their power play and I thought in the third period, they were better than we were,” said Montgomery.
Early in the third, Samsonov made a great save on Marchand on a rebound put-back attempt, probably his best save of the series.
Then, on the game-winning play, Matthews got behind McAvoy and beat Ullmark on a backhand-forehand move.
“There’s a reason he scored 69 (goals),” said Ullmark in a tip of the cap. “I’ll try to get him next time. That’s all I can say now.”
Whether it’s Ullmark or Swayman in the net for Game 3, it won’t matter much unless the B’s start playing in the Maple Leaf end a lot more than they have been.
