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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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TORONTO – To stay alive in this NHL postseason, the Maple Leafs had to overcome the Boston Bruins in Game 5 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Saturday. In the process, they also had to overcome themselves. 

While staving off elimination with a 4-3 victory in Boston, Toronto was called for eight penalties resulting in six power plays for the Bruins. Over a nine-minute span in the second period, six Leafs marched to the box, with four players populating the sin bin at once, while Toronto’s penalty 
killers tackled a 94 second 5-on-3 kill. 
 
The Leafs gave up just one power play goal to the Bruins, but the infractions were a momentum-buster in what was shaping up to be a pristine road game for Toronto after the first period. With their season on the line again in Monday’s Game 6, discipline will be emphasized above most everything else in the Leafs’ room. 
 
“Stay out of the penalty box. [Game 5] was going perfectly, and then there was a parade to the box,” said Mike Babcock after a team meeting on Sunday. “We thought we executed real well at the start, we played with good speed, scored early…So I thought the game went perfect for us. In saying that, our penalty kill was huge; we wouldn’t be here today without the penalty kill.”
 
It’s been a strange series penalty-wise for the Leafs, who have been called for 16 infractions over three games in Boston and only three penalties over two games at home. Meanwhile, the Bruins are averaging the fewest penalty minutes per game of any team in the NHL playoff field at 5:35, while the Leafs are near the middle of the pack at 10:35 per game. 
 
Babcock declined to say out-right how he felt about the officiating thus far (“That’s a real nice question you should ask me in the summer”), but at least one of his players – Jake Gardiner - admitted to being confused by the call that went against him in Game 5.
 
“I’m not too sure why,” Gardiner said of getting the gate for roughing. “I guess I was the third guy [into a melee near the Bruins bench], and I hit [Zdeno] Chara’s fist with my face. That might have been the penalty, I’m not sure.”
 
Regardless of what’s in the past, Babcock’s message is clear to his team as they prepare to defend home ice. When the penalty killers are getting a workout like they did on Saturday, the rest of the Leafs’ contingency has nothing to do but watch the clock tick down, and wait.
 
“They sit there and freeze to death,” said Babcock. “You’re not involved in the game, so what you do is you take your team out of it, you get no rhythm and now you’re on your heels. So we have to do a better job of staying out of the box.”
 
“It’s tough to get into a [flow],” admitted Mitch Marner, who played 15:05 against Boston in Game 5. “Our PKers did a great job last night, they and [goalie Frederik Andersen] were a big reason we won. Coming home, we’re going to have to stay out of the box [because] their power play is very talented, they can really make it count against you.”
 
Certainly, Andersen and his 42-save performance was the backbone for Toronto in victory.  So too were the Leafs’ primary penalty killers, who bounced back from poor outings on the kill in Games 1 and 2, where they ceded a combined five power play goals to Boston on 10 attempts (the Bruins are 6-for-17 overall with the extra man in the series, Toronto is 3-for-10).
 
It was 37-year-old Ron Hainsey leading the way for Toronto with 8:06 time on ice shorthanded in Game 5, including a span of 3:08 in the second period when the Leafs killed off the entirety of the Bruins’ 5-on-3 power play. Hainsey and Roman Polak took a bulk of the heat for Toronto’s kill struggles early in the series and Hainsey did have a chance to clear the puck before David Backes buried it for the Bruins’ lone power play goal on Saturday, but with his team’s season on the line, there was no doubt in Babcock’s mind to whom he was allotting the big minutes. 
 
“Who did you want on instead?” he asked. “The 41-year-old [Chara] wasn’t bad [in Game 5]. The 38-year-old [Patrick Marleau] has been one of our best players. Age has nothing to do with it. Are you physically fit enough? And who do you want out there instead? He’s that good, so he’s going out there.”
 
Marleau couldn’t pinpoint any one thing that’s gotten the Leafs in penalty trouble on the road that hasn’t also manifested at home. It wasn’t so much lack of discipline, but that situationally the Leafs haven’t always put themselves in good spots to avoid taking penalties, an assessment Morgan Rielly whole-heartedly agrees with and hopes the Leafs can change as they aim to keep their season afloat. 
 
“When you look at the penalties, there are certain ones [the refs] have to call,” Rielly said. “Like when you slash and break a stick, that’s not what you’re trying to do, but you have to call it. It’s not the way we want to play; we spent too much time shorthanded. It was good practice for our PK, but hopefully we don’t have to revisit that.