The Boston Bruins will get a third chance to knock the Toronto Maple Leafs out of the playoffs on Wednesday night when they hit the ice as home betting favorites at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com for Game 7 of their best-of-seven first-round playoff series.
The Bruins won the first two games of the series at home by scores of 5-1 and 7-3, easily paying off as moneyline favorites at the sportsbooks in each of those contests. The Maple Leafs then turned the tables with a 4-2 victory in Game 3, but Boston bounced back with a 3-1 road win at Toronto in Game 4.
That put the Bruins up 3-1 in the series heading into Game 5 last Saturday night, but the Maple Leafs avoided elimination with a 4-3 road victory in a game in which Boston was pegged as a heavy -185 home favorite.
And the Maple Leafs then forced a deciding Game 7 with a 3-1 win at home on Monday night. Jake DeBrusk opened the scoring for the Bruins early in the second period of that contest, but William Nylander and Mitch Marner had Toronto up 2-1 heading into the third period. Tomas Plekanec then iced the game with an empty-net goal.
Maple Leafs netminder Frederik Andersen stopped 32 of 33 Bruins shots in the Game 6 victory, after making 42 saves in the Game 5 win over the weekend. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask made 27 saves on 29 shots in the Game 6 loss; Rask was pulled in Game 5 after allowing four goals on just 13 shots.
For Game 7 on Wednesday night the Bruins opened as -150 betting favorites on the NHL odds, with the Maple Leafs set as +130 underdogs. The OVER/UNDER for the contest is listed at 5.5 goals; through the first six games of the series the OVER/UNDER is 3-2 with a PUSH on the six-goal total back in Game 1.
Boston overall is just 4-6 in its last 10 games against Toronto dating back to the regular season, and 5-5 in its last 10 games at home against the Maple Leafs, according to the OddsShark NHL Database.
The winner of Wednesday’s Game 7 matchup will move on to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the playoffs, with the Bolts set as the second-favorites at +495 on the updated 2018 Stanley Cup odds. The Nashville Predators lead the way as the +440 favorites, with the Vegas Golden Knights at +560 on those futures, and the Winnipeg Jets at +645.
For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.