ECQF Game 4: Toronto Maple Leafs Lose 4-3 At Home In Overtime, Down 3-1 In Series

OVERALL RECAP

In a night filled with overtime hockey, this game was probably one of the most entertaining games of these playoffs. Toronto was the better team for he most part last night but did not get the result they wanted. The Leafs shot, hit and blocked more shots than the opposition but just could not close out this game and like I’ve said before; the Bruins are a great hockey team and great teams find ways to win and they did just that tonight.

May 8, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs left wing

(19) is watched closely by Boston Bruins left wing

(17) during game four of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at the Air Canada Centre. The Bruins beat the Leafs 4-3 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

GAME RECAP

Not ever 3 minutes after the puck was dropped toronto opened the scoring with a goal from surprise surprise, Joffrey Lupul. I cannot say enough about this guy, he always seems to score when you need it, yes he seems to get injured a little too much but he’s always the guy scoring the big goals. He has been arguably the best guy for the Leafs in this series.  Late in the first period the Leafs found themselves with a 3 on 2 break in the Bruins zone, the puck slid into the corner to Lupul who passed the puck to the point to Mark Fraser. The first year Leaf passed it to Cody Franson who managed to find the back of the net on his shot to give the leafs the 2-0 lead going into the second period.

The Bruins began the 2nd period with a power play that was carried in from the first period. boston quickly took advantage as Patrice Bergeron shot in a rebound from a Zdeno Chara shot to cut the Leafs lead to one.  In the following 16 minutes the Leafs would find themselves in a hole as David Krejci would score back to back goals, one of them being a power play goal to give the Bruins the 3-2 lead late into the 2nd period. But you got the sense from this game that it wasn’t over as the Leafs were hungry not go lose another game at home and that was the case as Clarke MacArthur would even up the score at the 17 minute mark of the 2nd period

The last period did not see any goals but there definitely some chances to score but both James Reimer and Tuukka Rask made all the stops. Boston was given an opportunity to finish off the Leafs in regulation as they were given a 4 minute power play due to a high sticking penalty from Nazem Kadri. The Bruins were unable to score on the lengthy power play and we were off to overtime.

Overtime was a really open period, you could really tell the 4 on 4 play really opened up some ice as scoring chances were often stopped by both goaltenders. The end of the period came when Dion Phaneuf was too worried about the big hit as he stayed back to try and hit Nathan Horton but completely missed and was caught pinching. The Leafs paid for it and that was a major cause to the David Krejci game winning goal, that ended up being his hat trick goal. To top off Phaneuf missed hit there is a lot of people sharing video of James Reimer’s wife turning to Elisha Cuthbert and then Cuthbert rolling her eyes after the Bruins goal. you cannot write this stuff, it is a great video. Here is the youtube link not the best quality ever but here it is. (Reimer/Cuthbert staredown)