Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov returned to the Toronto Maple Leafs' lineup just in time to watch their playoff hopes dashed by Boston.
Glen Murray and Peter Schaefer scored third-period goals to lead the Bruins to a 4-2 victory Thursday night, officially eliminating Toronto from post-season contention.
The Bruins' Glen Murray is stopped by Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala Thursday in Boston.
(Winslow Townson/Associated Press)
Jiri Tlusty and Pavel Kubina scored for the visiting Maple Leafs. It's the first time since the 1926-28 seasons that Toronto has gone three years without a post-season appearance.
"I see a lot of things I like that we can build on moving forward," Leafs interim general manager Cliff Fletcher said. "We are determined to bring this team to the next level. Nothing happens quickly, there are no quick fixes or miracle cures."
Antropov, who missed four games with a knee injury, fed Tlusty in the slot in the second period to set up Toronto's first goal, after giving up the puck near the Boston blue-line in the first, which allowed the Bruins to open the scoring.
Sundin drew the other assist on the Tlusty goal but wasn't a factor in the game, his first since partially tearing his groin on March 12 in Philadelphia.
Kubina gave the Leafs a glimmer of hope of staving off elimination with a power-play goal at 15:01 of the third period, which cut the Bruins lead to 3-2, but Schaefer — playing in place of the injured Chuck Kobasew — answered 23 seconds later.
"Obviously, it's real disappointing. We really battled over a month to keep this race going," Antropov said. "You can say there is always next year, but three years in a row … it's getting on your nerves and it's not a fun feeling."
Marco Sturm and Phil Kessel also scored for Boston, which completed a home-and-home sweep of Toronto — outscoring its Northeast Division rivals 10-4 — and took the season series 5-2-1.
The Bruins, who were minus leading scorer Marc Savard for the second straight game, also kept their post-season hopes alive. With 88 points, they moved into a seventh-place tie with Philadelphia in the NHL's Eastern Conference.
Ninth-place Washington remained two points back after pulling out a 4-3 overtime win Thursday in Tampa Bay on Tomas Fleischmann's goal.
"We have a lot of guys stepping up and that's what good teams do," Murray said. "I didn't think Toronto was going to go away and let us have it, but we need the wins more than them."
Toronto is 12th in the 15-team conference with a 35-33-10 mark, but has prevailed in 12 of its previous 19 contests (12-6-1).
Leafs goaltender Vesa Toskala, making his 29th start in a row, stopped 30 of 34 shots and kept his team in the game, denying Boston forwards Milan Lucic and David Krejci late in the second period. He then robbed Lucic five minutes into the third on a two-on-one rush.
But Kessel put the Bruins ahead to stay at 5:47, snapping a 1-1 tie with his 18th goal of the season. He skated past Leafs defenceman Staffan Kronwall, who let the Boston forward go in alone on Toskala as he complained to the referee that Kessel was offside but to no avail.
"There's a lot of pressure there," Boston coach Claude Julien said of the Leafs. "Being from Ottawa, I know firsthand about the expectations and the demands of the fans."
Murray, who also scored in the Bruins' 6-2 win in Toronto on Tuesday, gave his team a 3-1 advantage midway through the final frame. With Leafs blue-liner Ian White in the penalty box, Murray skated out from the corner and beat Toskala glove side.
Toronto, which has allowed 14 goals in the last three games, entered the game having won six straight on the road and eight of nine.
"If we played the way we had the last 20-25 games, we wouldn't be in this situation," Leafs forward Alex Steen said.
Boston netminder Tim Thomas made 30 saves, including a pair of huge stops against Jason Blake and Sundin in the final 21 seconds of the second period with the game tied 1-1.
Toronto hosts the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (CBC, 7 p.m. ET).
With files from the Canadian Press
