Boston Bruins Drop Game to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 Final

Boston, MA - The Boston Bruins dropped a pivotal game last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2.

The Bruins came out flying to open up the game.  Patrice Bergeron placed himself at the right side of the net and tipped in a shot that made it past the Leafs goaltender Toskala to tally his first goal of the season and first goal since October 13, 2007. 

"It was great to get the monkey off of my back" said Bergeron.  Too bad the outcome of the game didn't end with a win.

31 seconds after Bergeron's goal, the Bruins lit the lamp again.  Rookie Blake Wheeler brought the puck down on a two-on-one and held the puck long enough to put a shot on net that hit a Leaf defenseman and went in.  It wasn't a pretty goal by Wheeler, but he will take it.

That was pretty much it for the Bruins offense during this game.  The Leafs made a great two goal comeback in the second period to tie it up to go into the third. 

In the third period, the Leafs Anton Stralman scored at the 10:46 mark to give the Leafs the lead.  Nine minutes later, Niklas Hagman scored on a rocket slap shot that got by Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas.

Notes: Tim Thomas made 33 saves in the game.  With about one minute remaining in the opening period, Dennis Wideman leveled Matt Stajan just outside the face-off circle.  Highlight hit.  While Stajan laid on the ice recovering, he eventually got up and skated off by his own power, some Leafs' teammates retaliated by the Boston net, resulting in a scuffle and a roughing penalty to Toronto's Luke Schenn. 

Easily the most talked-about play of the evening though, came from Milan Lucic, who launched Maple Leaf Mike Van Ryn through the glass and into the first row of seats.

“I just went in there to finish the check,” he said.  “It went through the glass, and unfortunately, it hit those two people that were sitting there.”

The man and woman directly behind the shattered panel were quickly attended to by EMTs.  They walked out of the arena bowl on their own power.

“I was just hoping they were all right,” said Lucic.  “They pay good money to have seats like that, and that’s the last thing you want to see happen to a fan.”

It was a strange experience for both Lucic and Van Ryn, too.

“I usually just bounce off the boards, and that time, I went through,” said Lucic.  “I just looked to make sure I had no glass inside my padding.”

Van Ryn briefly went to the Leafs locker room to check for the same thing.

“I’m still itchy,” he said after the game.  “It seems that it’s caught everywhere on me. It wasn’t like the hit hurt or anything like that.  I think it was just the weight,” he continued.

“It just exploded.”

Phil Kessel and Marc Savard had scored 11 of the Bruins 18 goals coming into the game.  On this night neither of them had a point.

The Bruins are back on ice Saturday Night at the Garden to take on the Atlanta Thrashers at 7pm.