Game 2 Wrap: Maple Leafs 3, Bruins 2 - Toronto scores final 2 goals to even series

A quickie take on the game with Three Stars, Three Duds and the biggest lingering question ...

SERIES

Tied 1-1

April 20: Boston 5, Toronto 1
Today: Toronto 3, Boston 2
Wednesday: Game 3 at Toronto, 7 p.m.
Saturday: Game 4 at Toronto, 8 p.m.
April 30: Game 5 at Boston, TBD
*May 2: Game 6 at Toronto, TBD
*May 4: Game 7 at Boston, TBD

* - If necessary.

GAME FLOW

Jim Montgomery went with the goalie rotation and Linus Ullmark in Game 2, despite Jeremy Swayman's heroics in Game 1 (and all four of his starts against Toronto.

Bruins came out strong, with Morgan Geekie potting a power play goal from Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk.

However, the Leafs 14 seconds with Max Domi thanks to a strange bounce off a stantion.

Just before the end of the first period, Pavel Zacha made a ridiculous feed to David Pastrnak.

And that was largely it for the Bruins. The Leafs carried the play in the final two periods as the Bruins appeared to be a little gassed, which wasn't helped by Andrew Peeke leaving with an injury. 

John Tavares tied the game after a soft play from Jake DeBrusk and Kevin Shattenkirk not exactly selling out for the block - and Ullmark getting beat shortside.

The Leafs got their first lead of the season against the Bruins when Charlie McAvoy took a couple of false steps and got beat over the top like Tavon Wilson for the game-winner.

Bruins got a power play with 6:03 left with a couple of dumb Maple Leafs penalties, but didn't do anything with it.

“I don’t think our urgency was where it needed to be to prevail tonight," Jim Montgomery said. 

"I actually liked our second period until we took the penalties. Their power play got rolling and they get they get juice from their power play. And I thought in the third period, they were, you know, better than we were."

THREE STARS

1. Austin Matthews

A goal and two assists for the Leafs' best player. He finally delivered.

2. Illya Samsonov

Rebounded nicely and made some huge stops - he was the better goalie - with 27 saves on 29 shots.

3. Morgan Geekie: Got the Bruins on the board and played another strong game. However, it's pretty bad when a callup is your top guy in a home playoff game. This leads us to ...

THREE DUDS

1. Hampus Lindholm: He's been horrendous through two games.

2. Brad Marchand: I was afraid of this coming down the stretch ... Marchand hasn't done much the last third of the season.

3. Kevin Shattenkirk: Bruins have too many undersized defensemen in a playoff series.

BIGGEST LINGERING THOUGHT

What are the Bruins going to do on defense? They have to shake things up, and Peeke is likely out. I assume Wotherspoon is going to get the call.

Maybe try:

Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Lindholm-Carlo
Wotherspoon-Shattenkirk?

ANOTHER LINGERING THOUGHT

Ullmark wasn't perfect, but he was good enough to win. Forwards lost this game. It wasn't about the goalie decision.

"No second guesses," Jim Montgomery said. "He was terrific. He made multiple big-time saves and that's a strength of our team. Both (goalies) played really well. Right? I mean, we only scored two goals."

More to come from Haggs...