after getting steamrolled by the Bruins through the first two games at Boston Adidas Noah Hanifin Jersey , the Toronto Maple Leafs had a point to prove.His name sitting comfortably at the top of that list, Auston Matthews responded in a big way.Matthews scored the go-ahead goal in the second period to lead the Maple Leafs picked in a 4-2 victory Monday night, cutting the Bruins’ lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series to 2-1.Toronto was reeling in the wake of 5-1 and 7-3 losses on the road, but got back to using its speed at home.”I don’t think any of us felt we played how we’re capable,” Matthews said. ”Tonight definitely was a statement game.”Matthews was fiery after Saturday’s blowout, responding to a question about how Boston’s top line of David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron could have 20 points in two games compared to his trio’s goose egg with an expletive: ”(It) happens.”The raw emotion that comes with being a young star came out a different way in this one after he took a feed from William Nylander down low at 5:13 of the second and fired a shot short-side on Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask to send the Air Canada Centre crowd into a frenzy.”It just feels like an earthquake in your feet when you score, especially in playoffs,” Matthews said. ”It’s definitely emotional.”Toronto coach Mike Babcock said he hopes the goal takes a weight off the 20-year-old’s shoulders.”When you’re my age, social media doesn’t really affect your life,” Babcock said. ”When you’re his age it affects your life. You know what people are saying.”Patrick Marleau had two goals, James van Riemsdyk also scored, and Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly added two assists each for the Maple Leafs. Frederik Andersen stopped 40 shots.Toronto will look to even the series here in Game 4 on Thursday night.Adam McQuaid and Zdeno Chara scored, Sean Kuraly had two assists and Tuukka Rask had 26 saves for the Bruins.”First couple games we had a couple bounces go our way, tonight we didn’t,” Marchand said. ”That’s hockey.”Pastrnak (four goals Adidas Alan Quine Jersey , five assists), Marchand (one goal, five assists) and Bergeron (five assists) had their way with Toronto through the first two games, but the Leafs held Boston’s big line at bay thanks in large part to Marner, Marleau and Tomas Plekanec.”We stuck to our game plan,” Marner said. ”We got the puck in our hands quickly. We used our speed.”The Bruins’ power play -5 for 10 in the first two games – got its first opportunity early in the third only to see Pastrnak hit the post.The Maple Leafs sealed it with 3:35 left when Marleau scored his second of the night on a 2-on-1 rush for his 70th career playoff goal.”We were on it all game,” Marleau said. ”We had our legs, we were playing the right way.”Pulled after allowing three goals on five shots in the first period of Game 2, Andersen then robbed Pastrnak with a stellar diving stick save with Rask on the bench for an extra attacker with just over two minutes to go.Trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes, Boston tied it at 3:06 of the second when McQuaid’s shot from the point squeezed under Andersen’s pad and dribbled in. The goal came moments after Andersen made a stellar glove save from his belly on David Krejci with Nash and Travis Dermott battling in the blue paint.The Maple Leafs went back ahead 43 seconds later when Marner controlled a pass off the boards from Rielly before feeding Marleau in front.The Bruins again responded when Chara ripped a shot off Andersen’s mask and in from an impossible angle at 6:19.Toronto’s Kasperi Kapanen, who hit the post early his team’s ugly 7-3 loss in Game 2, found iron again later in the period on a shot that beat Rask clean, but Matthews would make no mistake later in the period.Boston was left fuming after center Riley Nash, who returned to the lineup after suffering an ear laceration on March 31, was ruled to have put the puck directly over the glass for a delay of game penalty with just over three minutes left in the first, even though replays suggested otherwise.Toronto Adidas Dougie Hamilton Jersey , which was 1 for 7 with the man advantage through the first two games, made the Bruins pay just 7 seconds later when van Riemsdyk scored his second goal of the series at 17:05 to give the Leafs their first lead of the series.NOTES: Marleau’s first goal moved him past Gordie Howe into 17th place on the NHL’s all-time playoffs list. … Johnsson left the game in the third period favoring his left leg after he collided with Marchand, and did not return. … Toronto was again missing C Nazem Kadri for the second game of a three-game suspension for his hit on Tommy Wingels in Game 1, Tomas Plekanec was moved up from the fourth line to play between Marleau and Marner on the No. 2 unit. … Maple Leafs forward Leo Komarov sat out with a lower-body injury suffered Saturday, allowing veteran Dominic Moore to move into Plekanec’s old spot on the fourth line between Johnsson and Kapanen. … Hyman returned to the top line with Matthews and Nylander. WASHINGTON (AP) — Devante Smith-Pelly got up from his seat.The Washington Capitals forward had heard the unmistakably racist taunts from fans from inside the penalty box. As a black hockey player, he knew exactly what they meant by yelling, “Basketball, basketball, basketball!”“It’s just ignorant people being ignorant,” Smith-Pelly said.That scene unfolded in Chicago in February, 60 years after Willie O’Ree broke the NHL’s color barrier and paved the way for more minorities to play the sport and reach its highest level. O’Ree is being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday for his pioneering career, and yet incidents like the one Smith-Pelly went through show how much more progress needs to be made, in a league that’s 97 percent white and beyond.“It’s come a long way, but there’s still a lot of things that still need to change,” Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “That just comes through minorities as a group working together to try to eliminate those things from this game.”Those things just keep happening.In 2011, Philadelphia forward Wayne Simmonds had a banana thrown at him during a preseason game in London Adidas Julien Gauthier Jersey , Ontario.In 2012, then-Washington forward Joel Ward was the subject of racist social media posts after he scored a game-winning playoff goal.In 2014, then-Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban was the subject of racist social media posts after he scored a game-winning playoff goal.In April, Detroit prospect Givani Smith was subjected to threats and racial taunts and messages after a junior game in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. His team had a police escort the next time they went to the rink.“(O’Ree) had to go through a lot, and the same thing has been happening now, which obviously means there’s still a long way to go,” Smith-Pelly said. “If you had pulled a quote from him back then and us now, they’re saying the same thing, so obviously there’s still a long way to go in hockey and in the world if we’re being serious.”Through his work as an NHL diversity ambassador over the past 20 years, O’Ree has tried to work toward more inclusion and better minority representation. He is eager to tell kids at YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs and schools that hockey is another sport they can play.USA Hockey and Hockey Canada don’t keep participation statistics by race, though there are fewer than two dozen black players currently on NHL rosters. The NHL celebrates “Hockey is for Everyone” month each season and quickly condemns racist behavior.“A lot of it’s basically on your parents and how people raise their kids,” said San Jose forward Evander Kane, who acknowledged being the subject of racist taunting as the only black player on his minor league teams in Vancouver. “You can have all the awareness that you want, but at the end of the day Adidas Petr Mrazek Jersey , it’s really up to the individual and how they act and how they want to treat other people.”O’Ree, 83, still remembers how he was treated in the ’50s as hockey’s Jackie Robinson. He did his best to drown out the noise by listening to his brother Richard.“I heard the jeers and some of the racial remarks, but it kind of went in one ear and out the other,” O’Ree said. “He told me, ‘Willie, names will never hurt you unless you let them.’ He said, ‘If they can’t accept you for the individual that you are, just forget about it and just go out and do what you do best and don’t worry about anything else.'”Nurse said black players still have to worry about racist jeers and remarks.“I had a lot growing up and my brother had the big one too last year,” said Dallas forward Gemel Smith, Givani’s brother. “How we were raised, nothing really bothers me. That stuff doesn’t really get to me and things like that. My dad always taught us just to try to close it out, block it out.”Like Smith-Pelly, Simmonds is quick to say racism isn’t an issue unique to hockey or sports in general. His solution is a zero tolerance policy, which is what happened to the four fans in Chicago who were thrown out and banned from all home games by the Blackhawks.“I think what could be done to keep these types of incidents from happening would probably be to ban those people who are doing those lewd acts,” Simmonds said. “I think if you set a strong example right from the start Adidas Calvin De Haan Jersey , you won’t have too many people acting like clowns.”Commissioner Gary Bettman, who is going into the Hall of Fame with O’Ree as part of the class of 2018, considers it important to make clear to fans and players what’s expected and what’s not tolerated and said: “Even if it’s only one incident, it’s one too many.” Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said creating and cultivating an inclusive environment and building diversity are significant league priorities.There has been incremental progress. In the aftermath of Smith-Pelly’s incident, fans in Chicago raised $23,000 to donate to the Fort Dupont Ice Rink in Washington, helping hundreds of children.“When you see the reaction and the way that people rally around moments like that and try to make a positive out of it, I think that’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Nurse said.For some players like Seth Jones, the son of former NBA player Popeye Jones, hockey has been a safe place. The Blue Jackets defenseman said he has so far never been on the receiving end of race-based taunts or messages and said, “I was just like everybody else playing hockey, which is what everyone wants.”Most black players haven’t been that fortunate. And while Jones is optimistic that people can change, Smith-Pelly wasn’t sure exactly how that will happen.“It’s tough,” he said. “I don’t really know a plan to stop it. That’s how people are.”