BOSTON- There’s an old adage that the two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey. Just ask the Boston Bruins that and they’ll tell you it’s true. On Tuesday night, the Bruins let a two goal lead slip away at Buffalo, against the Sabres, and lost 3-2 in a shootout. Tonight, the B’s saw the exact same thing, with a slightly different result, a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“I think that you’re going to have to forget losses,” said Bruins forward Blake Wheeler. “It’s never easy to lose after a 2-0 lead after one. We just didn’t work as hard as we needed to and I think that was the formula for them because they outworked us.”

With Patrice Bergeron getting his first goal of the year, and his first since he came back from the severe concussion he suffered last year, and with Wheeler scoring a goal 31 seconds after that, it seemed like the Bruins would breeze. However, the Bruins were actually on cruise control and could not get out of it from the second period on.

The key moment for the Leafs came 20 seconds into the second period, when Bruins forward Milan Lucic had one of the biggest hits of the season, knocking Leafs defenseman Mike Van Ryn to the boards and shattering the glass. After that, they got their motor running.

Toronto made it 2-1 at the 6:17 mark with a goal from Van Ryn, who got his revenge, from Niklas Hagman and Nikolai Kulemin. The Leafs tied the game at 2-2 shortly after at the 8:30 mark with a goal from Matt Stajan.

Anton Stralman scored the go-ahead goal at the 10:46 mark of the third to make it 3-2 on a shot from the point. Niklas Hagman scored the empty-netter to close the game at 4-2. To describe the overall effort, Bruins head coach Claude Julien had some choice words.

“It was very poor,” said Julien about the Bruins performance tonight. “That’s one of those teams where as a coach were unacceptable and from the get go, even with a 2-0 lead, I don’t think we played well from start to finish.”

Scoring chances also were limited to the Bruins.

“It’s something we got to do better at,” said Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron after the game. “It’s going to happen and you just have to overcome the obstacle.”

On the defensive side of things, Dennis Wideman saw some aspects that contributed to the letdown tonight, including big hits.

“It’s part of the game,” Wideman explained. “Sometimes hits come your way and sometimes you have it. “

Going into tonight, the Bruins thought they were prepared for anything the Leafs brought, however, the end result was a different story. The Bruins were outshot 37-28, took more penalties (eight to four), lost the majority of the face-offs, and in the end, they lost on the scoreboard.

“The coaching staff came in and knew it was going to be a challenge,” Wideman said. “We knew coming in they were going to work really hard. For some reason tonight we were unable to match it.”

Notes