BOSTON — Auston Matthews scored on a breakaway to snap a third-period tie with eight minutes left, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Monday night to knot their first-round playoff series at one game apiece.
Ilya Samsonov stopped 27 shots for Toronto, which snapped an eight-game losing streak against Boston over 534 days dating to November 2022. Max Domi and John Tavares also scored for the Maple Leafs, who haven’t beaten 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 Game 1 on Saturday, made 30 saves.
Game 3 is Wednesday night in Toronto.
Boston led 1-0 and 2-1, but the game was tied for most of the third period until Domi lofted a pass out of the defensive zone to Matthews, who led the NHL with 69 goals this season. He gloved it as he crossed out of the neutral zone, dropped it in front of his stick, moved in on the goalie and beat him to give Toronto its first lead of the series.
Two nights after Swayman stymied Toronto 5-1, the Leafs beat Ullmark at least two — and probably three — times in the second before being credited with the tying goal.
With about six minutes left in the middle period, the Bruins goalie caught Calle Jarnkrok’s shot, but his glove may have been over the line when he did it. Replays never caught a clean picture of the puck and the line, so the no goal call on the ice was upheld.
About three minutes later — just 4 seconds into a Boston penalty for too many men on the ice — Tyler Bertuzzi swiped a puck out of the air and into the net. Although it was ruled a goal on the ice, replays showed Bertuzzi’s stick was above the crossbar and it was taken off the board.
About 90 seconds later, though, Tavares put one in that left no doubt, turning and faking the slapshot before wristing the puck past Ullmark to make it 2-2.
The Bruins, who opened a four-goal lead in the opener on Saturday, got a power-play goal midway through the first period on a cross-ice pass from Brad Marchand to Geekie. Just 50 seconds later, Domi took two swipes at a rebound to tie it 1-1.
Boston went up 2-1 with just 8 seconds left in the first when Pavel Zacha made a backhanded pass to set up Pastrnak.
