TORONTO (AP) – Mark Recchi scored two goals, and Dennis Wideman and Matt Hunwick each added three assists to help the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-5 on Saturday night.
Chuck Kobasew, Michael Ryder, Shawn Thornton, David Krejci and Blake Wheeler also scored for Boston in its fourth victory in six games.
Alexei Ponikarovsky scored twice, and Nikolai Kulemin, John Mitchell and Niklas Hagman added goals for Toronto.
Rookie Justin Pogge was chased from the Toronto goal in the second period after allowing six goals on 20 shots. At the other end, Bruins backup Manny Fernandez recovered from a rough first period to earn his first victory since Jan. 8.
Ponikarovsky put the Maple Leafs ahead 4-3 when he scored his second goal of the night at 6:06 of the second period. That was his third point of the evening and hi 14th in the last seven games.
Boston roared ahead by scoring three goals in a 3:43 span. Recchi tied it with his second power-play goal on a tip-in at 9:01, and Thornton put the Bruins ahead for good at 11:30. His long shot through traffic seemed to fool Pogge.
Leafs coach Ron Wilson called a timeout at that point to try and settle his team, but Krejci made it 6-4 on a breakaway at 12:44.
Curtis Joseph was sent in to relieve Pogge – the reverse of what happened during a 5-3 loss in Buffalo on Friday night – but the game was put out of reach when Wheeler scored at 17:04.
In the third period, Hagman scored his 20th goal of the season – and the 100th of his career – with a high wrist shot at 14:39. That was a welcome sight in his first game since sustaining a concussion Feb. 26.
Notes: Boston won five of six against the Maple Leafs this season. … Defenseman Jay Harrison played his first game for Toronto in two years after signing a free-agent contract this week. … Bruins forward Phil Kessel missed the game because of an undisclosed injury. … Leafs goalie Martin Gerber served the second game of his three-game suspension.
AP-ES-03-28-09 2156EDT
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