After Game 5 win in Boston, Leafs shift focus to home-ice battle

The Maple Leafs staved off elimination from the 2018 playoffs with a 4-3 victory over the Bruins in Boston Saturday. But if they wish to extend the first-round series to a seventh game with a Game 6 win at Air Canada Centre Monday night, they're going to need to do something that proved difficult for them in Game 5.

"We've got to get playing at the level we're capable of playing at for the whole 60 minutes - and obviously, stay out of the penalty box," Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said Sunday before praising his penalty killers, who prevented Boston from scoring on five of six power plays (including a 5-on-3 man advantage for 1:34) in Game 5. "We thought we executed real well at the start, we played with good speed, we scored early. You like to start on time. If they can get going and get playing good, it's way easier to play with the lead. I thought the game went perfect for us. We only got one power play, 20 seconds later it's in the net. We didn't have all that time on the power play. In saying that, our penalty kill was huge. We wouldn't be here today without the penalty kill."
Six Leafs were sent to the penalty box in the second period of Saturday's game, although two Buds players went into the box to offset a roughing double-minor to Bruins forward David Backes at the 12:51 mark. But five Toronto players getting called for a minor penalty in a less-than-10-minute span of the second gave Boston every opportunity to get back into a game in which the Leafs led by three goals prior to the Backes double-minor.
The fact that the Bruins did exactly that - scoring late in the second frame and again approximately six minutes into the third period - made Game 5 a much more nerve-wracking experience than it should've been for Toronto. But blueliner Morgan Rielly pointed to a trio of Leafs' veterans as providing great examples for his teammates down the stretch of regulation time, and in a third period in which Boston outshot the Buds 20-5.
"I think we got a little bit tense," Rielly said of the third period. "There were plays to be made and we didn't necessarily make them all the time. When you're coming down the home stretch of a game like that it can be a little bit nerve-wracking, and you might not want to have the puck on your stick for too long. I think the more time we spend getting used to the situations, the more comfortable we'll be.
"We talked about it this morning, we want to be in that situation when you're up late in the third. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world when they're rolling around offensively, but you're up in the third period of a playoff game. We'll take it. There's room to get better, but the way that guys like (defenceman Ron Hainsey) and Patty [Marleau] and Roman [Polak] handle those minutes is a good example of what we need to do to in order to win."
Despite Toronto's struggles with discipline, the positives were that the Leafs' offence struck early and both on the power play and at even strength - and did so in the unfriendly confines of TD Garden, a rink in which the Buds were unable to do much of any positive note in Games 1 and 2. But the series now shifts back to Toronto and the rabid Leafs fans that will be on hand - both inside the rink and outdoors at Maple Leaf Square - are sure to provide Leafs players with an emotional boost as they try and force a Game 7 back in Boston on Wednesday.
"That (Maple Leaf Square Saturday) night, that looks like fun," Babcock said of the throng that gathered to watch Game 5 on a big screen Saturday. "I'd like to go there myself. Go down there, have a few beers, enjoy the people. It looks unbelievable. They're so fired up about their Leafs, they're proud of their Leafs, but they don't know if they're quite good enough yet. They don't. So, we've got to prove we are. That's what we're here for."