SUMMARY
The Maple Leafs avoided elimination without their big star Auston Matthews in a second straight game on Thursday in front of a particularly lively crowd in Toronto, signing a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins.
William Nylander scored both Toronto goals, Joseph Woll stopped 22 of 23 shots and the Maple Leafs will return to Boston for Game 7 on Saturday night.
Woll, however, was robbed of his first playoff shutout by Morgan Geekie with a tenth of a second remaining.
The Maple Leafs dominated the first period 12-1 in terms of shots on goal without managing to open the scoring against a Jeremy Swayman in great form.
The Bruins then controlled the majority of the second, but this time it was Woll who stood out with 13 saves in front of the Toronto net and Nylander opened the scoring with his first goal of the playoffs with 55 seconds left. ‘commitment.
Nylander maneuvered well with the puck at the top of the territory before firing a seemingly unthreatening shot toward the Bruins goal. However, the puck made its way through traffic into the net defended by Swayman.
Woll once again put his mark on the game in the third, notably by calming the game down with a superb glove save in front of Charlie Coyle after 6:44 of play to conclude a good sequence by Boston in the Toronto zone.
Nylander then put the Leafs away by scoring his second goal of the game on a breakaway with 2:13 on the clock.
Woll was making his second consecutive start with the Leafs season on the line. The 25-year-old goaltender made 49 saves on 51 shots during these two games. Before losing his shutout late in the game, he hadn’t allowed a goal since the first period of Game 5.
Swayman finished the match with 24 saves.
Matthews missed the last two games after leaving the fourth game of the series due to illness.
The Leafs were also without Nylander for the first three games of the series. He was shut out in his first two games.
The Maple Leafs will try to reach the second round of the playoffs for a second straight year on Saturday after making it past the first round for the first time since 2004 last year.
Boston will look to reach the second round for the first time in three seasons.
The Bruins have been eliminated in seven games in the first round over the last two seasons. They also blew a 3-1 lead in last year’s series against the Florida Panthers.
The series winners will face these same Panthers in the second round.
