Bruins 5, Maple Leafs 2
TORONTO -- The Boston Bruins regained home-ice advantage in their first-round playoffs series with the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring a 5-2 victory Monday at Air Canada Centre.
The Bruins took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series on goals by Adam McQuaid, Rich Peverley, Nathan Horton, Daniel Paille and David Krejci. Milan Lucic had three assists, and Krejci added two assists.
Jake Gardiner and Phil Kessel scored for Toronto.
The Leafs gained the home-ice edge when they won Saturday in Boston to even the series.
Toronto outshot Boston 47-38, but Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask made 45 saves. Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer stopped 33 shots.
The Bruins led 4-1 after two periods, but the Maple Leafs scored a power play goal at 47 seconds into the third on a 16-foot snap shot by Kessel, his second goal of the series. Boston was short-handed because of a hooking penalty taken by Lucic at 19:27 of the second period.
However, Krejci clinched the game with an empty-net goal at 18:43.
The ACC crowd was noisy as it watched its team play its first home postseason game in nine years.
Some of the voice was taken from the crowd at 13:42 of the first period when McQuaid's 59-foot slap shot from the right point gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead. The assists on the defenseman's first goal of the playoffs went to Lucic and Krejci.
The Maple Leafs killed off an early Boston power play in the second period when Ryan O'Byrne was penalized for interference.
When the sides were even again, the Leafs came close at the five-minute mark of the second with Rask stopping a snap shot from Bozak.
Then the Bruins stormed back at 5:57, and Peverley notched his first goal of the series on a 20-foot snap shot set up by Jaromir Jagr.
Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf hit the post with a 41-foot wrist shot at 10:59 when the teams were playing with four skaters aside.
The Maple Leafs cut the lead to 2-1 on a power-play goal by Gardiner, his first of the playoffs, at 13:45 of the second period. It came off an attempted clearance by the Bruins' defense, and Gardiner made no mistake on his 52-foot wrist shot. The goal was unassisted.
Boston answered with Horton's third goal of the series. Lucic and Krejci again earned the assists that set up the 29-foot shot.
The Bruins weren't done, with Paille taking advantage of a giveaway by Kessel to break in alone and beat Reimer with a 27-foot backhand for a short-handed goal at 16:37 of the second. The Bruins had been penalized for too many men on the ice.
NOTES: Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference was back for Game 3. He was suspended from Game 2 because of an illegal check to the head of Mikhail Grabovski in Boston's 4-1 win in Game 1. "Nerve-racking," was the way Ference described watching Boston's 4-2 loss on Saturday. Dougie Hamilton did not have a good game in his place and was a scratch for Game 3. ... Other Bruins scratches were Kaspars Daugavins, Jay Pandolfo, Carl Soderberg and Aaron Johnson. ... Matt Frattin, Ryan Hamilton, Gardiner and O'Byrne, who gave the Leafs a boost when they were added to the lineup on Saturday, were back for Game 3. ... The Leafs' scratches were Clarke MacArthur, John-Michael Liles, Joe Colborne, Frazer McLaren and Michael Kostka. ... Game 4 will be played Wednesday at ACC, with Game 5 back in Boston on Friday.
