TORONTO – Once again the Bergeron Line was held off the scoresheet and once again that meant a playoff loss for the Boston Bruins.
The top line had 23 shot attempts and a handful of scoring chances, but the Toronto defense and Freddie Andersen held them in check while the Leafs scored a goal with them on the ice in a 3-1 win in Game 6 at the Air Canada Centre.
The Bruins have lost two straight chances to close Toronto out early in the best-of-seven series and now it will come down to a Game 7 on Wednesday night at TD Garden for the right to play Tampa Bay in the next round of the playoffs.
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After a scoreless first period where the teams were feeling each other out, the offensive flurries kicked up in the second period for both hockey clubs. Jake DeBrusk scored his third goal of the postseason just over a minute into the period when he snapped home a shot from the high slot off an offensive zone face-off win from David Krejci. It was just the third even-strength goal for Krejci’s line in this entire series and one that was absolutely needed in this game.
Unfortunately, they weren’t joined by any of the other three forward lines on the score sheet.
Instead, the Leafs scored 35 seconds later to tie things up and immediately take the momentum back away from the Black and Gold. Nazem Kadri fired a long-range shot that Tuukka Rask kicked out for a rebound, and the puck went right to a wide open William Nylander in front for his first goal of the postseason.
Boston Bruins
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It appeared that Toronto had scored again a short time later to take the lead on a Zach Hyman goal, but a good Bruins challenge overturned the score after it was determined Hyman interfered with Rask prior to scoring.
The score stayed deadlocked for most of the second period until a misstep by Boston’s top line opened up a chance that the Leafs stepped right into. Brad Marchand couldn’t corral a loose puck in the middle of the slot after a partially blocked shot, and instead Mitch Marner snatched it away and snapped a backhanded bid past Rask for the go-ahead score.