Bruins fall to Maple Leafs in shootout, 4-3

Share

By Danny Picard
CSNNE.com

BOSTON -- @font-facefont-family: "Times New Roman";p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormalmargin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; a:link, span.MsoHyperlinkcolor: blue; text-decoration: underline; a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowedcolor: purple; text-decoration: underline; table.MsoNormalTablefont-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; div.Section1page: Section1; The Bruins needed a win to clinch the Northeast Division on Thursday night at the TD Garden, but the Maple Leafs prevented that celebration, defeating the Bs 4-3 in a shootout.

Nazem Kadri scored the only goal in the shootout, putting a backhander over the left shoulder of Tim Thomas.

Toronto had tied the game at 3-3 after Joffrey Lupul scored his second goal of the game nearly eight minutes into the third period, after sniping the top-right corner with a snap shot from the high slot. It proved to be the goal that sent the game into overtime.

The Bruins had entered the third period with a 3-2 lead after scoring three second-period goals. Brad Marchand, David Krejci, and Andrew Ference each put the puck in the net, beginning with Marchands, which came with 31 seconds left on a Toronto power play, 2:09 into the second.

Marchand tied the game at 1-1, after making a tremendous effort to clear the puck out of his own zone on the penalty kill, and skate with it down the left wing, until cutting hard out front of the Maple Leafs net, and dragging it across the top of the crease, only to finish by flipping it into the low-right side of the net.

A minute later, Krejci finished off a tic-tac-toe play on a rush into Torontos zone, which saw some nice passing from Horton and Lucic, giving the Bs a 2-1 lead.

The Maple Leafs tied the game at 2-2, seven minutes into the second period, when Lupul finished a Phil Kesel pass out front on a Toronto power play.

Andrew Ference gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead less than two minutes later when his low slap shot from the top of the left circle beat James Reimer five-hole. As it turned out, it wasnt the game-winner.Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard. You can listen to Danny on his streaming radio show I'm Just Sayin' Monday-Friday from 9-10 a.m. on CSNNE.com.

Contact Us