Maple Leafs to play Bruins or Panthers in Eastern 2nd Round

The Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Boston Bruins or Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Second Round.

Toronto advanced by eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 2-1 overtime win in Game 6 of the best-of-7 first round at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

The Maple Leafs (50-21-11), the No. 2 seed from the Atlantic Division, will have home-ice advantage against the Panthers (42-32-8), the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, but would begin on the road against the Bruins (65-12-5), who won the Presidents' Trophy as the top team during the regular season. That series is tied 3-3 with Game 7 at TD Garden in Boston on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS, NESN, BSFL).

Mitchell Marner led Toronto in the first round with 11 points (two goals, nine assists). Auston Matthews had nine points (five goals, four assists), Morgan Rielly had eight (three goals, five assists) and John Tavares, William Nylander and Ryan O'Reilly each had seven. Goalie Ilya Samsonov was 4-2 with a 3.14 goals-against average and .900 save percentage.

During the regular season, the Maple Leafs were 1-2-1 against the Bruins. Marner had five points (one goal, four assists), and Matthews (three goals) and Michael Bunting (one goal, two assists) each had three points. Samsonov was 1-1-1 with a 2.96 GAA and .895 save percentage in three games. Matt Murray made 30 saves in his only start against Boston, a 4-3 loss Jan. 14.

Charlie Coyle's four points (one goal, three assists) led the Bruins. David Pastrnak (two goals, one assist) and Brandon Carlo (one goal, two assists) each had three points. Linus Ullmark was 2-1-0 with a 2.35 GAA and .917 save percentage. Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves in his only start, a 2-1 overtime victory in Boston on April 6. 

Toronto and Boston have split 16 postseason series against one another. The Bruins have won six in a row since the 1969 NHL Quarterfinals, defeating the Maple Leafs in Game 7 the past three series (2013 conference quarterfinals; 2018 and 2019 first round).

The Maple Leafs were 3-0-1 against the Panthers this season, with three of the games going to overtime. Marner had six points (one goal, five assists) and Matthews scored five goals. Nylander (three goals, two assists) and Tavares (one goal, four assists) each had five points.

Samsonov was 2-0-1 with a 1.44 GAA and .953 save percentage in three games (two starts). Murray was 1-0-0 with a 4.41 GAA and .860 save percentage in two starts.

Brandon Montour led the Panthers against the Maple Leafs in the regular season with five points (two goals, three assists). Aleksander Barkov had four points (one goal, three assists). Alex Lyon was 1-0-1 with a 1.92 GAA and .938 save percentage. Sergei Bobrovsky was 0-1-1 with a 4.99 GAA and .841 save percentage.

Toronto and Florida have never played each other in the playoffs.