Kasperi Kapanen scored with just over six minutes left in the third period Friday night, in what turned out to be the game winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 in game five of an Eastern Conference NHL playoff first round series at TD Garden. The Leafs take a 3-2 series lead in the best of seven.
Torontos Auston Matthews broke a scoreless tie at 11:33 of the third period in what was a controversial goal. It appeared that on the Matthews goal that Zach Hyman made contact with Boston goalie Tuuka Rask, and didn’t allow him time enough to get back in position to make an attempted save. The Bruins challenged the play, but the goal stood. Kapanen then made it 2-0 at 13:45. Boston pulled Rask with 2:50 left for an extra attacker, and David Krejci one timed a pass from David Pastrnak behind Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen with 44 seconds left to cut the lead to 2-1. The Bruins though were unable to come up with the equalizer, and now face elimination in a game six at Toronto Sunday afternoon.
Rask made 25 saves in the loss, while Andersen made 28 stops in the win for the Maple Leafs. Boston was 0-3 on the powerplay, while Toronto was 0-1. The Bruins face off in game six at 3:20 pm on Sunday at ScotiaBank Arena in Toronto in a must win game.
