David Pastrnak scored 1:54 into overtime as the Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in Game 7 to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Saturday.
Hampus Lindholm scored in regulation and added an assist on the game-winning goal for the Bruins, who nearly blew another 3-1 series lead after losing to the Florida Panthers at the same stage of the postseason last spring .
Jeremy Swayman made 30 saves.
William Nylander answered for the Leafs. Toronto recovered from a deep hole in the series before winning two straight without ailing star sharpshooter Auston Matthews, but was unable to complete the comeback.
Ilya Samsonov started in net and stopped 29 shots after Joseph Woll, who was outstanding in Games 5 and 6 to help drag his team back to the series, suffered an injury late in the third period of the team’s victory. Thursday that brought the Original Six matchup to seven. .
Matthews returned to the lineup after being removed from Game 4 with an illness and then missing the final two games with his team on the brink of elimination.
The Bruins will face the rested Panthers in the second round in South Florida starting Monday.
Pastrnak took the series after Lindholm fired a puck off the end boards. The winger won a run and then threw Samsonov to the ice to send the Leafs home.
Nylander took a pass from Matthews with 10:59 left in regulation and scored his third after Tyler Bertuzzi stole the puck from Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo to give Toronto a 1-0 lead in an affair. tight defensive.
But Lindholm tied it 1:21 later with a short jumper over Samsonov after intense pressure around the Toronto crease to set TD Garden on fire before the teams went to overtime.
Woll replaced Samsonov to start the third period of Game 4 and allowed just two goals in more than 140 minutes of action as Toronto, which entered 1-16 all-time when trailing a 3-1 series, roared back to tie the game. marker. Showdown of the original Six.
The Bruins got off to a much better start than in Games 5 and 6 when they combined for just three shots in the first period inside a rowdy TD Garden before Leafs defenseman Joel Edmundson crushed Pastrnak with a clean hit. .
Samsonov made a good save on Jake DeBrusk and survived a sequence without his stick with Boston buzzing.
Toronto’s best chance came late in the period when Matthew Knies beat DeBrusk for a 50/50 puck and found Nylander, who scored twice in Game 6, in the slot for a chance that Swayman converted.
Boston got the first power play of the game in the second, but Mitch Marner had the best chance when the Bruins netminder delivered the puck behind his net.
The Leafs then fell to 1 for 21 with a fruitless man advantage before Toronto winger Connor Dewar made a short breakaway that denied Swayman.
Knies then got another run out of the box only to see Kevin Shattenkirk knock the puck off his stick and send the Toronto rookie into the Boston area.
Samsonov then denied Mason Lohrei at the other end to keep the score 0-0 for 40 minutes inside a tense TD Garden.
Pastrnak, who was called up by head coach Jim Montgomery, had a good chance seven minutes into the third that Samsonov smothered.
Toronto fought back to force Game 7 despite being without the ailing Matthews for a pair of 2-1 wins, including an overtime win on the road in Game 5.
The Leafs, who won a postseason series for the first time in two decades last spring, also were without Nylander in the first three games. The Swede needed two games to recover before scoring a pair of goals Thursday that helped tie the series and send the teams back to Boston.
Despite the Leafs’ valiant attempt, Toronto has lost six straight Game 7s, including four in a row to the Bruins (2013, 2018, 2019 and 2024).
There will also be questions about head coach Sheldon Keefe’s future after a fourth first-round exit in five seasons, along with star winger Marner, who has one year left on his contract and can sign an extension on July 1.
The Bruins, meanwhile, avoided becoming the first team in NHL history to blow consecutive 3-1 leads and lose after the Panthers did the same to them 12 months ago to ruin Boston’s record-breaking regular season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2024.