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Bruins lose Game 6 to Maple Leafs, 2-1, are down to their last chance

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on

Published in Hockey

TORONTO — If you’re carrying around a sense of impending doom right now, you must be a Bruins fan.

After blowing a chance to close out the Toronto Maple Leafs at home on Tuesday, they failed on their second chance to oust the Auston Matthews-less Leafs on Thursday, losing to the suddenly stout Leafs, 2-1, in Game 6 at Scotiabank Arena.

Now the B’s are down to their last chance to advance. In a Game 7. At TD Garden. On Saturday night.

Can they blow a 3-1 series lead for the second year in a row? The Leafs are certainly making a lot of believers, most of all themselves.

William Nylander scored late in the second period on a long shot that was deflected in front and Joseph Woll made it stand up in the hectic third period. After the B’s applied pressure for much of the period, Nylander finally ended with a breakaway goal with 2:13 left in regulation.

Morgan Geekie scored a meaningless goal with less than a second left, but it felt like a shutout for the netminder.

The shot clock in the scoreless first period was almost identical to what it looked like in Game 5 when the Leafs held a 12-2 advantage. In Game 6, the B’s got one measly shot through to Woll while Jeremy Swayman faced a dozen again.

But the Leafs’ territorial advantage wasn’t quite as strong, it was just that the B’s could not hit the net. The Leafs were doing a good job of packing the house in front of Woll, causing the B’s to miss the net or have their shot blocked 13 times. And again, the Leafs dominated in the faceoff circle, winning 13 of 19.

One Leaf strategy seemed to be to get under Brad Marchand’s skin, and it worked a little bit. Jake McCabe gave him a stick jab behind the play and Max Domi, who had picked his pocket behind the Bruin net, knocked him down after a whistle. Marchand then took a needless roughing penalty on Tyler Bertuzzi. The B’s killed it — and got their lone shot on net on the PK.

 

The B’s started the second period in the same fashion with David Pastrnak taking a double minor on a high-stick on Bertuzzi at 1:10. But the B’s killed that off, too, without allowing much in the way of scoring chances.

The B’s did not get their first 5-on-5 shot on net until around the 8:00 mark of the second period when Mason Lohrei stepped up on a rush.

The B’s got their first honest-to-goodness scoring chance with about 9:00 left in the second when Pastrnak followed up his own blocked shot but could not squeeze it over Woll’s pad.

John Beecher earned the B’s first power play when he cut across the top of the crease and Woll tripped him. The B’s didn’t get much going during the PP, but they started to play in the Leafs zone a little more.

The B’s had 12-8 shot advantage in the second period and it appeared as though they were slowly reeling in the Leafs.

Then lightning struck in the final minute of the period. After an icing, John Tavares beat Beecher on a faceoff in the left circle. Nylander possessed the puck out high in the zone and did a couple of curls with the puck before taking a long distance shot that hit Charlie McAvoy’s leg and past Swayman short side with 55 seconds left in the period.

It was lucky break for the Leafs, but they’ve been earning that kind of luck the last few nights.

The B’s didn’t get that same kind of luck in the third period when they stormed the Toronto zone, forcing Woll to make several big stops. When he was down and out, Brandon Carlo’s shot went off Morgan Rielly and trickled through the crease.


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