BOSTON (AP) ― The Boston Bruins turned back Toronto’s comeback with a rally of their own.
Trailing by three goals in the third period and still by two with less than 90 seconds left in their season, the Bruins scored twice in a span of 31 seconds to tie it and then eliminated the Maple Leafs on Patrice Bergeron’s goal at 6:05 of overtime to win 5-4 in Game 7 on Monday night.
“It was one of the crazy ones I’ve been part of,” said Bergeron, who assisted on Milan Lucic’s goal with 1:22 in regulation and scored to tie it with 51 seconds left in the third. “We found a way, not necessarily the way we would have liked to play the whole game.”
Tuukka Rask stopped 24 shots for Boston, which led the best-of-seven series 3-1 before the Maple Leafs won two in a row to force a seventh game.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Bruins are the first team in NHL history to win a Game 7 after trailing by three goals in the third period.
The Bruins will play the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Bruins will host Games 1 and 2 on Thursday and Sunday before traveling to New York for Games 3 and 4 on May 21 and 23.
Toronto opened a 4-1 lead in the third period of the decisive game, but Nathan Horton cut the deficit to two midway through the third period and then Lucic and Bergeron scored in the final 1:22 with Rask on the bench for an extra skater.
“Anything can happen,” Lucic said, “and that’s exactly what happened.”
Rangers ice Caps in 7
WASHINGTON (AP) ― For 120 minutes over two games, New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist stopped every single shot Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals threw at him.
That’s the main reason the Rangers are heading to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Led by Lundqvist’s 35 saves in a second consecutive shutout, and goals from some unlikely sources, the Rangers beat the Capitals 5-0 in an anticlimactic Game 7 Monday night, eliminating Washington for the second year in a row.
By winning a Game 7 on the road for the first time in its history, New York completed its comeback after trailing in the series 2-0 and 3-2 ― the latest in Washington’s long history of playoff collapses.
“He was really good, but the team was also good, too. I have to give the team some credit. They played hard in front of him,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
