Leafs down Bruins, will play Lightning in first round of playoffs

TORONTO — William Nylander scored twice as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Boston Bruins 5-2 on Friday in a regular-season finale that saw both teams rest most of their stars ahead of the playoffs.

With the victory, the Leafs ensured they will face the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, while the Bruins are set to meet the Carolina Hurricanes.

Ilya Mikheyev, Nick Abruzzese, with his first NHL goal, and Pierre Engvall, into an empty net, also scored for Toronto (54-21-7). Erik Kallgren made 24 saves.

The Leafs' 115 points in the standings is 10 more than the previous franchise record set in 2017-18.

Trent Frederic and Jake DeBrusk replied for Boston (51-26-5), which got 22 stops from Jeremy Swayman. Craig Smith had two assists.

Having already locked up the Atlantic Division's No. 2 seed, the Leafs rested Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares up front, while No. 1 goaltender Jack Campbell served as the backup.

The Bruins, meanwhile, were minus Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall. Charlie McAvoy sat out on defence.

The combined absences from both clubs added up to nearly US$73 million in sidelined salary-cap dollars.

Boston, which was playing the second of a back-to-back, still had a chance of catching Tampa for third in the division entering play, but will instead finish as the Eastern Conference's first wild-card seed.

The Bruins scored 70 seconds into the opening period of a game that had an exhibition feel with little intensity when Frederic poked his eighth goal of the season past Kallgren.

Toronto responded at 3:51 on the power play after Boston's Marc McLaughlin was assessed a four-minute penalty for high-sticking when Mark