Little mistakes made the difference in Leafs 5-2 Boston loss

After all of this time away from the playoffs, fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs remembered exactly what they needed to do at the most exciting time of year.

The same can’t be said of the team they cheer for.

Toronto doomed itself to a 5-2 loss in Game 3 of an opening-round series with the Boston Bruins by failing to pay attention to the little details that become magnified in the post-season.

There were turnovers, two of which led directly to goals. There was not enough success in the faceoff circle. There was a shortage of tape-to-tape passes in the jittery early stages of the game.

And at the end of the night, there was a 2-1 series deficit to contend with against a tough, experienced Bruins squad.

“You have to give the opposition credit,” Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said. “They made (fewer) mistakes than we did and their execution level was above ours.”

It was still a wonderfully entertaining evening at Air Canada Centre, which played host to its first playoff game since May 4, 2004.

The 19,746 paying customers rose to the occasion – to say nothing of the nearly 4,000 screaming fans crammed into the adjacent Maple Leaf Square and Real Sports Bar & Grill. Giveaway scarves created a whiteout-esque feel inside the ACC and the much-maligned patrons of the platinum section got to their seats on time for the opening faceoff.

Then Scott Newlands delivered a stirring rendition of the national anthems that set a perfect tone for the occasion.

“You got some goosebumps during that anthem,” Leafs centre Tyler Bozak said.

It was pretty clear by the midway point of the first period that Boston had elevated its play from the Game 2 loss at TD Garden. It was up to Toronto to try and match it.

With the intensity high and the game being played on a razor’s edge, execution was imperative.

Boston opened the scoring at 13:42 of the first period directly after David Krejci beat Bozak cleanly on a draw in the offensive end. Adam McQuaid’s point shot appeared to go between Joffrey Lupul’s legs and fooled James Reimer.

“I think there were some things going on with that one that made it a little tougher,” Reimer said. “The puck was doing some weird things.”

It was a harbinger of what was to come. The faceoff circle was a troublesome area all night.

Bozak is Toronto’s top man in the dot but ended up with just a 41 per cent success rate. While going head-to-head with four of the NHL’s best – Patrice Bergeron, Rich Peverley, Chris Kelly and Krejci – he was also kicked out of the circle a number of times.

“I thought maybe they were cheating a little bit so I tried to cheat,” Bozak said. “Your timing can be off by half a second and you’re going to have an off night. You’re not going to get away with mistakes in the circle and off timing against the guys that they have.”

In the pivotal second period, turnovers cost Toronto dearly.

Carlyle had been somewhat prophetic by raising that topic after the morning skate. He noted that making safe plays is a must in games as tight as these ones.

“To limit the number of turnovers and where they happen is the most important thing for teams and for our team to focus on,” Carlyle said.

First it was Ryan O’Byrne to miss the memo.

He was stripped of the puck by greybeard Jaromir Jagr behind the Leafs net and the 41-year-old promptly found Peverley, who made it 2-0.

Even after Jake Gardiner narrowed the score – getting the first Leafs playoff marker in this building since Mats Sundin converted from Gary Roberts and Alexander Mogilny – the Leafs failed to lock things down.

Milan Lucic beat Mark Fraser to the puck on the very next shift and found an open Nathan Horton. Boom. Boston was up 3-1.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf got sloppy with the puck on their own blue-line during a power play and Daniel Paille raced in alone to make it 4-1 before the second intermission.

Lights out.

“We made some mistakes that ended up in our net,” Carlyle said. “When you do that, usually it ends up that you’re on the wrong side of the score.

All was certainly not lost.

The Leafs threw everything they had at the Bruins during an 18-shot final period and ended up with a season-high 47 shots on Tuukka Rask. Kessel also scored his second goal of the series.

“We had a much better third (period), but we’ve got to be able to play like that the whole game,” said defenceman Cody Franson, who hit one of two posts by the Leafs on the night.

To a man, the Leafs came away from the loss firmly believing that this is a Boston team they can compete with. However, heading into Game 4 on Wednesday night they also realize that the margin for error is extremely small.

“This is a war of attrition,” Carlyle added. “There’s skill involved in it, there’s will involved in it and there’s luck involved in it. But you have to earn every one of them.

“We didn’t do enough and we made too many mistakes to give ourselves a proper chance to win.”

Perhaps, like in Game 1, this will be another learning experience for a young team. If not, the series could slip away from them quickly.