The second game of the Leafs’ first roudn series against the Bruins happening this evening, in case you weren’t aware.

The Leafs won Game 1 on Thursday night by a score of 4-1. Tonight, the Leafs looked to do the same, or better, against the Bruins while playing in Boston.

There were no changes to the Leafs lineup from Game 1, but the Bruins brought in David Backes in place of Marcus Johansson, who the Bruins acquired at the trade deadline from the New Jersey Devils.

The Bruins had the favour of scoring first in this contest, as a puck battle behind the net led to a silver-platter feed for Charlie Coyle, who beat Frederik Andersen to make it 1-0:

As the Leafs were trying to fight back in this game, the Bruins unfortunately were able to add to their lead as Brad Marchand was left alone in driving to the net:

The period ended that way, with the Bruins leading 2-0.

The second frame started with the Bruins continuing their physical and skillful play that got them up by two goals. The Leafs were struggling to generate much in the offensive zone with the strong Bruins backcheck.

An unfortunate incident midway through the second occured, as Jake Muzzin threw a hard hit on Torey Krug that shook him up and caused a delay:

The unfortunateness continued, this time for the Maple Leafs, as Nikita Zaitsev left a weird back hand pass for Nylander, and Nylander misplayed the puck to the front of the goal mouth and Danton Heinen finds it to make it 3-0:

 

Andersen kept the Leafs alive, as much as he could, on an ensuing penalty kill with this gorgeous pair of saves:

The Leafs went on the powerplay shortly after as Chara shot the puck over the glass, but unfortunately Kadri took a penalty midway through the advantage to negate that. As Kadri came out of the box, hungry to stop the Bruins’ attack, he took a knee-on-knee hit from Jake DeBrusk that was not called:

The period came to end with the Bruins leading 3-0.

The chippiness continued into the 3rd period as the referees have been putting their whistles away to the astonishment of each side.

Finally, after a scrum in front of the Bruins’ net, the refs found David Krejci in a scrum making the extra push and shove, and earns the sole penalty.

On the powerplay, the Bruins pressured the Leafs to their dismay, and they were unable to score.

Finally, Nazem Kadri tipped a shot past Tuukka Rask, as generated by a great forecheck by William Nylander to find Dermott at the point:

Unfortunately, the charge didn’t last long, as the chippiness came back, and Kadri was kicked out of the game for a retaliatory cross check on Jake Debrusk, after a somewhat dangerous hit on Patrick Marleau:

On the ensuing 5 minute major penalty, the Bruins added to their lead on this rebound from a great Andersen save:

The Leafs killed off the rest of the major penalty, but unfortunately weren’t able to generate any more offense, with less than 1 minute remaining. The Bruins take this one 4-1, tying the series 1-1.

Today, it goes to #31 for his stellar play in net. He kept the Leafs in the game when the Bruins were threatening to run away with the game. Obviously, it wasn’t enough for the win, but he was fantastic tonight.

The Bruins and Leafs will play game 3 on Monday at 7 pm, at Scotiabank Center in Toronto.