TORONTO — Sheldon Keefe’s only goal on Friday was to get his team through the injury front unscathed.
With that mission firmly accomplished, the Toronto Maple Leafs now turn the page on the playoffs.
Until next time? Just the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
William Nylander scored twice as Toronto defeated the Boston Bruins 5-2 in a regular-season finale in which both teams rested most of their stars.
“A strange game for the coach,” Keefe said. “Your bank is weird. You have guys playing in all kinds of different places. You’re trying to do well in the game, but you’re trying not to use the guys too much.
“I was monitoring the ice time more than I was monitoring the game on the ice to be honest. It was a weird game in that way, but the guys did a good job.”
With the victory, the Leafs ensured that they will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, while the Bruins will face the Carolina Hurricanes.
“Back-to-back champs, one of the best teams in the league,” Nylander said of Toronto’s next opponent. “It will be a difficult series, but it will be a good battle for us.”
Ilya Mikheyev, Nick Abruzzese, with his first NHL goal, and Pierre Engvall, with an empty net, also scored for Toronto (54-21-7). Erik Kallgren made 24 saves.
The Leafs’ 115 points in the standings is 10 more than the previous franchise record set in 2017-18, while those 54 wins are also a high mark.
Related Videos
“They can be tough games to play,” Toronto forward Jason Spezza said Friday. “It doesn’t feel normal.”
Trent Frederic and Jake DeBrusk answered for Boston (51-26-5), which received 22 stops from Jeremy Swayman. Craig Smith had two assists.
“You want to play as many games as you can,” Bruins center Charlie Coyle said. “No matter what night it is, who you play against, you want to be in the lineup and make an impact.”
Having already secured the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division, the Leafs rested Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares up front, while No. 1 goaltender Jack Campbell served as backup.
The Bruins, meanwhile, were minus Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall. Charlie McAvoy sat in defense.
The combined absences from both clubs totaled nearly $73 million in salary-cap dollars.
Playing the second in a row, Boston still had a chance to snag Tampa for third place in the division and a chance to face Toronto in the first round going into play, but will finish as the Eastern Conference’s top wild card seed. . .
“We accomplished what we wanted to do,” Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. “We’re in a good place to get out of here and use the next two days to get ready for some big hockey.”
The Bruins scored 70 seconds into the opening period of a game that had an exhibition feel as Frederic pushed his eighth goal of the season past Kallgren.
Toronto responded at 3:51 on the power play after Boston’s Marc McLaughlin was given a four-minute penalty for hitting high when Mark Giordano’s point shot bounced off Mikheyev in front for his 21st of 2021-22.
The Leafs took the lead at 1:16 p.m. when Nylander stole the puck from McLaughlin and ran solo over Swayman before posting a career-high goal total of 33.
Dressed for his ninth NHL game after signing with Toronto following the conclusion of his US college season in late March, Abruzzese then scored his first in the NHL on a nice deflection off a Rielly point shot. with 6.7 seconds remaining in the period.
“It felt really good,” Aburzzese said. “I had some chances in the last two games.
“It’s nice to have that come in.”
Rielly has been impressed with the way the 22-year-old former Harvard player has thought about the game since arriving in Toronto.
“It’s not too big and it’s not scary,” Rielly said with a small smile. “But he does a good job and wins a lot of battles and plays well.”
The Bruins started throwing their weight in the second, but there still wasn’t much excitement until late in the period when Tomas Nosek controlled Toronto defenseman Timothy Liljegren from behind against the boards.
Rielly responded by briefly grappling with the Boston forward to make up for minor penalties before Nylander scored his 34th eight minutes into the third.
Nick Foligno, a trade-deadline acquisition from Toronto last season, hit a puck home with 9:36 remaining in regulation in a sequence that was properly challenged for offside.
DeBrusk eventually made it 4-2 with his 25th with 7:11 remaining in regulation, but Kallgren closed the door from there before Engvall scored his 15th in an empty net.
“We’ve got 82 games on the books,” Keefe said. “Now we can really play.”
Notes: The Leafs have home-field advantage for the first time since 2004, the last time they won a playoff series…Toronto has never played Tampa in the playoffs…The Bruins eliminated the Leafs in seven games in the first round in both 2018 and 2019.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 29, 2022.
___
Follow @JClipperton_CP on Twitter.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca