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The comeback clock struck midnight for the Maple Leafs on Saturday.
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After trailing 3-1 in the best-of-seven series against the Boston Bruins, the Leafs couldn’t fully dig themselves out of the hole.
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More pain at the hands of the Bruins came in Game 7 when David Pastrnak scored at 1:54 of overtime at TD Garden.
Pastrnak took the puck off the end boards after Hampus Lindholm shot it into the Leafs’ end, got behind Morgan Rielly, then used a backhand deke to score on Ilya Samsonov to give the Bruins a 2-1 victory, eliminating Toronto from the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The loss extended a string of Game 7 losses to six in a row for the organization. Toronto has not won a Game 7 since April 20, 2004, against the Ottawa Senators in the first round.
The Leafs were the 65th team in National Hockey League history to force a Game 7 after being down 3-1 in a series. The Bruins, though, became the 33rd team to win Game 7 after allowing the opposition to tie the series.
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The Leafs showed great character in rallying from being down 3-1. But in a series in which they didn’t have their full set of their stars for all of it, they could not complete the comeback.
The Bruins are headed to the Sunshine State to clash with the Florida Panthers in the second round, with Game 1 set for Monday night in Sunrise.
The game served as a proper snapshot of what the series had become. It was tight-checking, with scoring chances mostly coming only after diligence.
The suspense had observers on edge from the opening faceoff, and there was nothing to show on the scoreboard through 40 minutes.
William Nylander scored the game’s first goal at 9:01 of the third period, hitting an open net behind Jeremy Swayman on a pass from Auston Matthews after Tyler Bertuzzi got control along the boards.
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The building wasn’t silent for long. At 10:22, Lindholm tied the game, getting a shot through some bodies to beat Samsonov on the short side.
Thick was the drama before the game, as word began to circulate that Leafs goalie Joseph Woll would not be playing.
That became the Leafs’ reality when Samsonov led the team on to the ice for the pre-game warmup. Within seconds, the Leafs posted on X that Woll was out because of an injury that the 25-year-old suffered in Game 6.
There had been no indication in the previous few days that Woll, who starred in the Leafs’ wins in Games 5 and 6, would not be in net.
It’s believed Woll was hurt on the last play of the game, when he stretched across the crease to try to stop a Morgan Geekie shot. Geekie scored on the play, ending Woll’s shutout bid with less than one second remaining in the Leafs’ 2-1 victory.
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Martin Jones dressed as the backup to Samsonov.
And then there was Matthews, who had been skating by himself in the past week before he joined his teammates for the morning skate.
On Saturday morning, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe couldn’t (or wouldn’t) confirm that Matthews would be in the lineup after the star centre missed the previous two games.
Initially, Matthews missed practices and morning skates as he dealt with an illness. Sometime in the past week, the thinking is that it was an injury that kept Matthews out.
Matthews wasn’t himself, certainly not the dominating player he was in Game 2, but was able to make an impact.
Keefe didn’t want to mess with his top two lines, slotting Matthews between Pontus Holmberg and Calle Jarnkrok on the third line. In Matthews’ return, Nick Robertson was scratched.
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With Woll out, worry among some in Leafs Nation cranked up.
Samsonov, who had an .883 save percentage in the first four games of the series, soon started to put those concerns to rest.
Samsonov was sharp early, making a right pad save on Jake DeBrusk and a few moments later getting his glove on a Lindholm shot.
The Leafs didn’t get much on Swayman in the first. His best stop in the opening 20 minutes came when he snared a shot by Nylander.
The Leafs found their groove in the second period, winning more puck battles and getting more chances on Swayman.
Connor Dewar had the best opportunity when he got in alone on Swayman, who got low to make a stick save.
As usual, though, Toronto wasn’t fully satisfied with what it accomplished on special teams. The Leafs killed off two Bruins minors in the second, but failed to score on their only power play, running their futility in the series to 1-for-21. The Leafs did have five shots on Swayman on their second man advantage. Close, though, doesn’t count on the scoreboard.
X: @koshtorontosun
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