Leafs avoid elimination with 2-1 win over Boston

First Posted: 5/10/2013

(AP) Tyler Bozak and Clarke MacArthur scored and James Reimer stopped 43 shots Friday night to help the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 and stay alive in their first-round playoff series.

Game 6 is Sunday in Toronto, with the decisive seventh game back in Boston on Monday, if necessary.

Boston has won both games in Toronto in the series and has not lost on the Leafs’ home ice in the playoffs since 1959.

Zdeno Chara scored for Boston to cut the deficit to it 2-1 with 8:48 left. The Leafs killed off a delay-of-game penalty in the last four minutes and then protected the lead when the Bruins pulled Tuukka Rask for an extra attacker with 1:11 left.

Rask made 31 saves.

Only once in their history have the Leafs come back to win a playoff series after falling behind 3-1: In the 1942 Stanley Cup finals, when Toronto won four straight to take the title after losing the first three games against Detroit. The Bruins are 15-2 in playoff series after taking a 3-1 lead, but they blew a 3-0 lead against Philadelphia in the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Maple Leafs opened a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal in the second period. Bozak got around Andrew Ference for a breakaway and beat Rask.

They made it 2-0 on another Bruins mistake, taking advantage of Johnny Boychuk’s giveaway that led to MacArthur’s goal.

That’s when the Bruins began applying relentless pressure, turning around what had been a 19-8 Leafs advantage in shots after one period. Boston outshot Toronto 36-14 the rest of the way, including a backhander from Jaromir Jagr that appeared to barely nick Reimer’s right shoulder before passing over the crossbar with 11.1 seconds left.

Notes: David Krejci has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in the series, and was leading the NHL in playoff scoring entering Game 5. He and Nathan Horton have combined for eight of the team’s 15 goals in the first four games. He assisted on Chara’s goal Friday night. … The Bruins called up Matt Bartkowski from Providence of the AHL to fill in for Wade Redden, who was out with an undisclosed injury. … Leafs D Mark Fraser missed the game. He had surgery on Thursday to repair broken bones in his face after getting hit with a puck in Game 4.