On a night where the Bruins could have put a strangle hold on the series versus the Maple Leafs in front of their home crowd, Joffrey Lupul had other ideas as he led his team over the B’s in a 4-2 Game 2 victory.

Lupul scored a power-play goal to even the score at one in the first period. He would be heard from again as Lupul put his team ahead for good after backhanding a shot past Tuukka Rask again.

His teammate Matt Frattin did all the dirty work for the second goal and Lupul pointed that out after the game.
“It was a good play by Frattin,” Lupul said. “He had his legs going all game and he was shooting the puck and taking it hard to the net. It was a big game for him to step in after not playing for some time and giving us a spark.”

It was a complete different Maple Leafs’ team in Game 2. They were playing more physical, winning more battles than the B’s and concentrating on not turning the puck over.

“We bounced back,” Lupul said. “We’ve been doing it all year. I think that’s one of the main differences in our team this year to last year. When we’ve had bad outings like we did for sure in Game 1, we’re able to refocus and bounce back. It was a hard-fought game tonight. They played well. It wasn’t easy.”

The Black and Gold did not have enough fire power to take Game 2. Nathan Horton and Johnny Boychuk lit the lamp for the B’s as it was not enough. The B’s had a heavy dose of offensive pressure down the stretch, but Reimer and the Maple Leafs had the answer this time.

Head coach Claude Julien talked about his team’s play after Game 2 at TD Garden Saturday night.

“Certainly weren’t as good, but they were better, there’s no doubt there and they played a much better game than they did in Game 1 and we didn’t play quite as well as we did in the first game,” Julien said. “Certainly, they made some adjustments, but I think our execution wasn’t as good tonight. The breakdowns that we had defensively were poor breakdowns on our part and we gave them a lot of outnumbered situations. We have to be better defensively, in order to be better offensively. I said that last time.”

On a side note, Phil Kessel scored his first even-strength goal versus the B’s in the last 23 contests. All three goals he scored against the B’s previously were of the power-play variety. But, the story on this night was Lupul and the B’s had no answer for him.

The Black and Gold are looking for a better outcome tonight in Toronto. Winner of the game will take a 2-1 series lead.