The Bruins stuck with their goalie rotation for Game 2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and, though they got a very good performance from Linus Ullmark (30 saves), this best-of-seven series is tied at 1-1.
The Leafs earned the split. They were the better team most of the night on Tuesday and they finally forged ahead late in the game to take a 3-2 victory back to Toronto for Game 3 on Wednesday.
Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins shoves Joel Edmundson #20 of the Toronto Maple Leafs into the bench during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Brandon Carlo #25 of the Boston Bruins skates towards the puck during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
The Bruins celebrate Morgan Geekie goal during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Bruins fans give the middle finger after Max Domi #11 of the Toronto Maple Leafs scored during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Morgan Geekie #39 of the Boston Bruins celebrates his goal during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Linesman David Brisebois falls near Jakub Lauko #94 of the Boston Bruins and Pontus Holmberg #29 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
The Bruins celebrate David Pastrnak #88 of the Boston Bruins goal during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
John Beecher #19 of the Boston Bruins falls in front of Ryan Reaves #75 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Linus Ullmark #35 of the Boston Bruins dives for a save during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs shoves Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins into Mitch Marner #16 during the first period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Danton Heinen #43 and Brandon Carlo #25 of the Boston Bruins sandwich Matthew Knies #23 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery screams out during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Tyler Bertuzzi #59 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates for what he thought was a goal against Linus Ullmark #35 of the Boston Bruins but it was taken back during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Tyler Bertuzzi #59 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates for what he thought was a goal against Linus Ullmark #35 of the Boston Bruins but it was taken back during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Linus Ullmark #35 of the Boston Bruins has a laugh with Jeremy Swayman after making a save during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
David Pastrnak #88 of the Boston Bruins gets tangled up with Ilya Samsonov, Morgan Rielly #44 and Timothy Liljegren #37 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Max Domi #11 of the Toronto Maple Leafs tries to push the puck past Hampus Lindholm #27 of the Boston Bruins during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Boston Bruins fans wave their towels during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Tyler Bertuzzi #59 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates past his teammate John Tavares goal as Linus Ullmark #35 of the Boston Bruins lays on the ice during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Charlie Coyle #13 of the Boston Bruins and Ilya Lyubushkin #46 of the Toronto Maple Leafs both get a roughing call for taking a swipe at each other during the third period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
The Bruins bench after losing to the Maple Leafs 3-2 during the third period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins has words with referee Jean Hebert and Garrett Rank during the third period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Linus Ullmark #35 of the Boston Bruins stops a shot from Mitch Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
The Toronto Maple Leafs celebrate their goal during the second period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Linus Ullmark #35 of the Boston Bruins misses Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs goal during the third period of Round One, Game Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
The Leafs took their first lead of the game, and the series, with 7:54 left in the third. Max Domi made a great aerial pass to Auston Matthews that the Leafs sharpshooter gloved down at the blue line and beat Ullmark on a breakaway on a move to his forehand.
The B’s got a late power play at 13:57 but they could not do anything with it. And with Ullmark pulled for the extra skater, Ilya Samsonov made a great save on Pavel Zacha redirect
The answer to the question on everyone’s mind was answered at 6:35 when Ullmark led the B’s out for pregame warmups, signifying that he would be the night’s starter.
And he was on his game in the first period as the Leafs had the better of the play but the B’s went into the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.
Some of the story line from Game 1 continued early in Game 2. Jake McCabe took a bad post-whistle crosschecking penalty on Jakub Lauko at 9:52. At 10:18, the B’s had their first lead of the game. Brad Marchand slipped a pretty cross-crease pass to Morgan Geekie, who banked it in off Samsonov.
But before the Garden crowd died down, the Leafs tied the game just 14 seconds later. It looked like the B’s controlled the puck and were about to break, but Matthews kept the puck and rang a shot off the crossbar. It came out to Max Domi, who at first was stopped by Ullmark but was then able to score on the rebound.
Toronto had the momentum and, at 12:29, they had their first power play when Johnny Beecher was called for hooking. The B’s mostly did a good job of killing it off, but Ullmark was called on to make a big pad save on 69-goal scorer Matthews, all alone in the slot.
It looked like the game would go into the first intermission tied when Samsonov mishandled the puck, giving Charlie Coyle a chance. Coyle shot the puck off the goalie’s mask with13 seconds left, calling for a stoppage.
On the right dot, Geekie won the faceoff to David Pastrnak, who did a great job of holding off Simon Benoit to shovel the puck up to Charlie McAvoy and head to the net. McAvoy moved it to Pavel Zacha, who made a brilliant backhand pass to Pastrnak in the slot and he finished off the work of art with a one-timer goal with just under eight seconds left in the period.
But the Leafs took control of the game in the second period and they thought they may have tied it twice before they finally did with 1:34.
On a too-many-men penalty that had coach Jim Montgomery fuming at his bench, the B’s again did a good job of killing it off until the very end of it, when Calle Jarnkrok had a Grade A chance from the right side of the slot with 5:53 left in the period. Deep in his net, Ullmark made a brilliant glove snare right at the shortside post but the only question was whether the puck crossed the line. It was ruled no goal on the ice and, after a lengthy review, that was upheld.
Then after Matt Grzelcyk was called for interfering with John Tavares in the slot, it looked like the Leafs tied it up almost immediately when Tyler Bertuzzi batted home an aerial rebound. But it didn’t a long time to see that Bertuzzi’s stick was well above the crossbar and the goal was washed out.
But on the same kill, Jake DeBrusk just missed breaking up Matthews pass for Tavares and he finally beat Ullmark for real over the blocker with 1:34 left in the period.
Hurting the B’s on the penalty kill was the fact that Andrew Peeke was lost earlier in the second period, apparently after blocking a shot with the inside of his foot.