Bruins advance after 4-goal explosion in 3rd
Jake DeBrusk scored his second goal of the game to break a third-period tie, and the host Bruins came from behind to beat the Maple Leafs in Game 7 — again — winning 7-4 on Wednesday night to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Kasperi Kapanen put the Maple Leafs ahead 4-3 with a short-handed goal in the second, but the Bruins scored four times in the third period to pull away. Torey Krug tied it, DeBrusk gave the Bruins the lead with 14:35 to play, David Pastrnak added a goal with 8:21 left to help clinch it, and Brad Marchand lofted one into the empty net with 51 seconds left to set off a celebration in the stands.
Tuukka Rask stopped just 20 of 24 shots for the Bruins, who will play the Lightning in the second round.
Frederik Andersen had 29 saves for the Maple Leafs, who have not won a playoff series since 2004. They came close in the first round in 2013, when they rallied from a three-games-to-one deficit against the Bruins and took a 4-1 lead in Game 7, but the Bruins rallied to win it in overtime.
Danton Heinen scored his first NHL postseason goal, Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, and David Krejci had three assists for the Bruins.
Patrick Marleau scored twice for the Maple Leafs, who won again won back-to-back games after falling behind 3-1 in the series.
Malkin, who led the Penguins in goals (46) and points (98) during the regular season, missed Game 6 against the Flyers with a lower-body injury. The Russian star was injured when he got tangled with Flyers forward Jori Lehtera in Game 5.
Hagelin, who scored twice in the first round, is dealing with an upper-body injury after colliding with the Flyers’ Claude Giroux in Game 6. He won’t travel with the team.