Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen stopped 42 of 45 shots Saturday night, as the Maple Leafs built a 4-1 lead and held on to defeat the Boston Bruins 4-3 at TD Garden in Boston in game five of an NHL first round playoff series. Boston still leads the best of seven 3-2.
Connor Brown staked the Leafs to a 1-0 lead 6:36 into the opening period. Andreas Johnsson scored his first career playoff goal 3:36 later to make it 2-0.
David Backes got the Bruins on the board on the powerplay at 9:45 of the second to cut it to 2-1. The Leafs responded on a goal by Tyler Bozak 51 seconds later, followed by a powerplay marker from James van Riemsdyk 1:19 after the Bozak goal making it 4-1. That ended the night for Bruins goalie Tuuka Rask, who was pulled for Anton Khudobin. Sean Kuraly once again cut the deficit to a pair for Boston at 4-2 when he scored his second of the playoffs at 17:18.
Boston inched closer when Noel Acciari scored at 5:56 of period three, to make it 4-3. The Bruins dominated the last period, outshooting the Leafs 20-5, pulling backup goalie Khudobin with 1:15 left for an extra man, but couldn’t come up with the equalizer. Torey Krug had two assists for Boston, while Acciari added a helper to go along with his goal. Bozak and van Riemsdyk also added helpers in the win for Toronto.
Rask stopped nine of 13 shots in his 31:55 of action. Khudobin stopped all eight shots he faced in the final 26:37 in net. Boston was only 1-6 on the powerplay, while Toronto was 1-1. Boston outshot Toronto 45-21. Game six will be back in Toronto Monday night at 7 pm.
