The Maple Leafs beat the Bruins 3-2 to even their series at 1 game apiece

BOSTON (AP) — Auston Matthews scored on a breakaway to break a third-period tie with eight minutes remaining, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 Monday night to knot their series first round playoff at one game each. .

Ilya Samsonov stopped 27 shots for Toronto, which ended an eight-game losing streak against Boston spanning 534 days dating back to November 2022. Max Domi and John Tavares also scored for the Maple Leafs, who failed to beat the Bruins in a playoff series since 1959.

Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak scored for Boston. Linus Ullmark, starting as part of a goalie rotation even though Jeremy Swayman won the opener on Saturday, made 30 saves.

The third game will take place Wednesday evening in Toronto.

Boston led 1-0 and 2-1, but the game was tied for most of the third period until Domi made a pass out of the defensive zone to Matthews, who led the NHL with 69 goals this season. season. He gloved it coming out of the neutral zone, dropped it in front of his stick, walked toward the goaltender and beat him to give Toronto its first lead of the series.

Two nights after Swayman upset Toronto 5-1, the Leafs beat Ullmark at least two – and probably three – times in the second half before being credited with the tying goal.

With about six minutes left in the middle of the period, the Bruins goalie caught Calle Jarnkrok’s shot, but his glove may have been over the line when he did it. Replays never produced a clear picture of the puck and line, so the no-goal call on the ice was confirmed.

About three minutes later – just 4 seconds into a Boston penalty for too many men on the ice – Tyler Bertuzzi knocked a puck out of the air and into the net. Even though it was an on-ice goal, replays showed Bertuzzi’s stick was over the crossbar and he was taken off the board.

However, about 90 seconds later, Tavares scored one that left no doubt, turning and faking a slap shot before feeding the puck past Ullmark to make it 2-2.

The Bruins, who opened a four-goal lead in Game 1 Saturday, scored a power-play goal midway through the first period on a cross-ice pass from Brad Marchand to Geekie. Just 50 seconds later, Domi pulled down two rebounds to tie the game 1-1.

Boston took a 2-1 lead with just 8 seconds left in the first period when Pavel Zacha completed a backhand pass to set up Pastrnak.