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BOSTON -- It was supposed to be Bostons night. But thanks to a desperate performance by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Bruins merely added to their recent history of making life difficult for themselves. After losing 2-1 to the Leafs on Friday night, Boston now has to come back to Toronto for Game 6 of their playoff series. The Bruins still lead three games to two but they will be taking a long look at themselves in the mirror before they get on the plane. It wasnt until Toronto went ahead 2-0 some two minutes into the third period Friday that the Bruins hit high gear. And the fashionably late offence had coach Claude Julien steaming. "This is something we have to take the blame for. Its of our own doing," said Julien. "They were a desperate team. They showed it at the beginning of the game and we were down 2-0 and all of a sudden we became the desperate team ... If theres anything they have to understand from this, its that we need to play three periods like we did in the third if we expect to close this off." Julien was blunt in his assessment of the squandered chance to put the Leafs away. "Every once in a while the hockey gods will take care of the people that deserve it," he said. "Obviously they played 40 strong minutes and they deserved to win tonight. We have to lick our wounds and get ready for the next game." Game 6 is scheduled for Sunday in Toronto, giving Leaf Nation another excuse to party. Game 7, if needed, Monday in Boston. Im sure that weve poked the Bruins," said Leafs coach Randy Carlyle. "Theyre going to be a very desperate hockey club come Sunday night and we better be equally as desperate." Toronto survived a shaky opening minute before buzzing the Bruins for two periods. "Our hockey club was prepared to play. We skated," said Carlyle. "And thats what we ask them to do. Go out and skate and work. And when we do that, we can be competitive." The Leafs did more than skate. They added 46 more hits to their ledger, pushing their series total to 246 (compared to 39 and 204 for the Bruins). "A huge bounce-back game for our team," said captain Dion Phaneuf. Tyler Bozak and Clarke MacArthur scored to ensure the Leafs live to fight another day. For MacArthur, who had talked of scoring on the night, it was his second goal in as many games after being a healthy scratch for two games. The hard-skating Leafs probed Boston from all angles to quiet the yellow-and-black crowd of 17,565 -- the Bruins 156th consecutive sellout. But down 2-0 two minutes into the third period, Boston charged back to threaten the Leafs and pepper James Reimer. After Charas goal, a Bozak penalty for delay of the game with 3:48 remaining further cranked up the tension. Toronto killed it off, only to see the Bruins pull their goalie for the extra attacker. "They kept coming," said Phaneuf. "But we did a good job of keeping most of the stuff to the outside. And when they did get the through, Reims was huge for us." The Bruins outshot Toronto 19-4 in the third period and 44-33 on the night. It would have been more lopsided had the Leafs not blocked another 27 shots. "It takes courage to get in those shooting lanes but you have to be able to have the people that are prepared to do it night in and night out," said Carlyle, who called Charas booming shot "a lethal weapon." "Thats what the playoffs are. That separates people." Tuukka Rask, who had faced 95 shots in the previous two games, was immense in the Boston goal but could not get all of Bozaks shot after a Bruins miscue at the Toronto blue-line allowed the speedy Leaf to race in midway through the second period for a short-handed goal. An opportunistic MacArthur padded the lead at 1:58 of the third, taking advantage of a Boston turnover before racing past defenceman Johnny Boychuk and beating Rask. At the other end, Reimer was as reliable as a Swiss watch. He ranged from quietly efficient to spectacular, especially as the desperate Bruins tried to get back in the contest. And he got some help from his crossbar and goalpost in the third. "He was unbelievable," Phaneuf said of Reimer. "Hes been great all year for us and tonight he was the difference," he added. Reimer was finally beaten at 11:12 of the third when Bruins captain Zdeno Chara snapped in a shot after the line of David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton bottled the Leafs up in their own end. Boston had been pressing hard and Toronto could not clear the puck. It was Krejcis 11th point in four games. The goal brought the crowd alive. A Bozak penalty for delay of the game with 3:48 remaining further cranked up the tension but Toronto killed it off. The Leafs were hanging on by the end. Phaneuf, pilloried for his role in the Bruins winning overtime goal Wednesday night, looked exhausted and possibly playing with an injury. The Leafs have now won two of the three games at TD Garden and will be looking to bring some of that success home. Boston, meanwhile, will be looking for a way to stop the Leafs from dictating the pace. And to refocus its offence. Krejci, who came into the game with five goals and five assists, did not manage a shot on goal in the first two periods. Neither did linemate Lucic. Along with Horton, the trio managed just two shots in total although they often had the Leafs running around in their zone. Julien pointed to the line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin as underperforming, with just a combined three assists in three games. "That has to come for us to be successful, starting next game," he said. "Its called accountability. We have to have more of that from that line, as far as being a difference-maker, or at least something positive." But he offered a long shopping list of deficiencies from his team. Coming into the game, history was against the Leafs. Toronto was 1-13 all-time in best-of-seven series in which it trailed 3-1. Boston, meanwhile, was 15-2 lifetime in best-of-seven series in which it had held that lead. Plus the Leafs came into the game with a 2-12-1 record in their last 15 games in Boston. But the Bruins have had difficulties closing out series in recent years, although it did not stop them winning the Cup two years ago. In 2011, they were beaten in possible Game 6 clinching games against Montreal and Tampa Bay but went on to win Game 7. In 2010, they needed six games to dispose of Buffalo (after being up 3-1) before blowing a 3-0 lead and losing in seven to Philadelphia. Bostons record in non-Game 7 elimination games under Julien is now 3-7. After being penned in their own end for the opening minute of the game, the Leafs came at the Bruins hard. Toronto was outshooting Boston 10-4 at the 10-minute mark, using its speed to come at the home side from all angles -- largely silencing the fans in the process. The Bruins, meanwhile, looked to slow the Leafs down with hits. Lucic and Krejci treated defenceman Carl Gunnarsson like a Swedish crash test dummy on the same shift, sending him flying into the boards. With a little more than three minutes remaining, Torontos Mikhail Grabovski pulled out one of his party tricks. Stationed behind the goal, the slender Belarusian flipped the puck over the goal and then sidestepped Boychuk on the edge of the crease, looking to bat the puck into the net from mid-air. Rask caught it, however, to end the magic act. Toronto outshot Boston 19-8 in the first period and the Bruins were lucky not to leave the ice trailing. It helped that Boston won 18 faceoffs and only lost three in the period. Fourteen Leafs had shots on goal in the first period, compared to seven Bruins. The red-hot Krejci and linemate Lucic werent among them. The question was how long Boston would stay dormant if the Leafs didnt turn their pressure into goals. Bergeron had several chances in the second period, most notably when he came out from behind the goal and tried to stuff the puck into what seemed like an open goal, only to see Reimer somehow manage to get a toe to it. "Im not quite sure," Reimer said when asked how he made the save. Toronto finally solved Rask shorthanded at 11:27 of the second period, when Bruins defenceman Andrew Ference was unable to keep the puck in the Toronto zone and the speedy Bozak beat him to the puck. His shot trickled through Rask, who almost had it. Boston outshot Toronto 17-10 in the second period, trimming the Leafs overall edge to 29-25. Defenceman Jake Gardiner, growing in stature, led the Leafs with 24:05 minutes of ice time. Chara logged 28:06 for the Bruins. 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In the Southland and Southern conferences, there are the two teams at the top and then everyone else.The winner between Central Arkansas and Samford on Saturday night would make a good case for being No. 3 in its league, and may even earn a number in the rankings.Last year, Sam Houston State and McNeese were the only Southland teams to finish in the STATS FCS Top 25 and make the playoffs. It was the same in the SoCon with Chattanooga and The Citadel. So it comes as no surprise that those four teams comprise the two favorites in their respective leagues, and theyre all ranked -- in the top 15 no less -- while none of their conference cohorts are.Its very possible, however, they could have company after this week.Though neither Central Arkansas nor Samford cracked the Top 25 following dominant season-opening wins, the Bears got the third-most votes among teams not to make it with 200 and the Bulldogs received 24 of their own. So a victory Saturday would almost certainly push Central Arkansas into the Top 25, and Samford may squeak in by beating a Bears team picked to finish third in the Southland and which suffered its only conference losses last season to Sam Houston and McNeese.A 7-2 Southland record wasnt enough to get Central Arkansas a spot in the FCS playoffs, and Samford was a big reason why. The Bulldogs dominated the Bears in a 45-16 win to open last season, a loss that looked even worse to the playoff committee after Samford went 3-4 in SoCon play.But the site for the rematch is a different one. This time the Bulldogs must head to The Stripes at Central Arkansas, the purple-striped field at Estes Stadium.I have not been since they installed the new turf, said Samford coach Chris Hatcher, who previously coached there while with Murray State. Its a loud and a pretty rowdy crowd.And theyre a big, physical football team. I think, last year was not indicative of how good of a team they had. We jumped on them early, hit them with some deep balls. Were going to have to do the same to get their crowd out of the game, and hopefully well be able to stop the run well like we did last season.The Bears were held to 119 yarrds on the ground that day, their third-worst total of 2015.dddddddddddd This season began in much different fashion, rushing for 283 yards and four touchdowns in last weeks 56-13 rout of Houston Baptist.This week were playing Samford and its a totally different animal, UCA coach Steve Campbell said. ... They are very explosive offensively.The Bulldogs put up 77 points in the opener, but it came against Division II Mars Hill. Devlin Hodges completed 39 of 49 passes for 313 yards and five touchdowns without an interception, finding freshman TaDarryl Marshall 14 times for 100 yards and a score.It was a continuation of Hodges impressive play from last seasons 3-0 finish when he threw for 1,047 yards and seven TDs, growing more accustomed to playing in the fast-paced Samford offense.Each week we play a faceless opponent. Its not so much playing against UCA. We dont need to worry about what they do, we just need to come out and be us and do what we do and play with a lot of tempo, Hodges said. Whether we need to run the ball 50 times or pass the ball 50 times, we have to be able to execute.While Hodges didnt play in last years win over the Bears, counterpart Hayden Hildebrand was a second-stringer at the time and attempted only four passes. Hes the reigning Southland offensive player of the week after throwing for 238 yards and two touchdowns while throwing only four incompletions against Houston Baptist, not to mention he rushed for 52 yards and a score.Hayden Hildebrand, I thought, played exceptionally well, Campbell said. He did a great job of controlling the offense and a great job of protecting the football. He did a great job of getting the football to the playmakers.While Campbells team doesnt have to face either of the Southlands ranked teams until visiting No. 11 McNeese on Oct. 15, Samford could use a win to boost its confidence going into a bye week before taking on sixth-ranked Chattanooga.Whichever team wins will show it may also deserve to be mentioned among its conferences elite. ' ' '