<p>For Ryan OByrne, talking about his final NHL game is difficult.</p><p>The defenseman, who suited up in 308 regular season games with Montreal, Colorado and Toronto, saw his NHL career come to an end on May 13, 2013 the night the Maple Leafs infamously blew a three-goal lead to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Jared Norris Jerseys playoffs before falling 5-4 in overtime.</p><p>In all honesty, that game is hard for me because that was my last game in the NHL, which is really sad and hard, OByrne told the Sporting News from Chicago where hes currently working on his MBA at Northwestern. You never want to go out like that. You dont want your NHL career to end, and then to end it on that note, is even harder.</p><p>SN STAFF PREDICTIONS | </p><p>Toronto flew to Boston on the night of May 12 following its 2-1 win at Air Canada Centre, erasing a 3-1 series deficit to force a deciding game a night later at the TD Garden.</p><p>Due to the compre sed schedule, as a result of the lockout, there was no travel day between Games 6 and 7 in the series. As the Leafs made way for Boston, they got word their counterparts were experiencing a mechanical i sue with their plane.</p><p>We got news Boston had some i sues and we're going to have to stay the night in Toronto and fly the day of the game, OByrne recalled. We were like, Oh, this is fantastic, because obviously, you know as hockey players, were stuck in our routines, flying the day of the game would be completely unacceptable.</p><p>To have won in Toronto, the momentum was our way and then to go into that game, things were obviously going our way.</p><p>The Bruins jumped out Jahan Dotson Jerseys to a 3-1 series lead, out-scoring the Leafs 15-10 in the proce s, but managed just a single goal in each of Game 5 and 6 as the Leafs clawed their way back into the series.</p><p>Compounding i sues for the Bs ahead of Game 7 was having to travel on game day.</p><p>Having to fly on a game day after losing a Game 6, your emotions are kind of all over the place, said Milan Lucic from his offseason home in Los Angeles. When little things dont go the way that you hope, little things tend to frustrate you, especially in the playoffs, when you kind of get superstitious about things.</p><p>When things me s around with your game day preparation, it can screw you up a bit. Maybe thats why we didnt play well until the third period.</p><p>MORE: </p><p>The Leafs' confidence heading into the deciding game stretched to the coaching staff. Former a sistant coach Scott Gordon believed his Washington Commanders Jackets team had the momentum after erasing the 3-1 series deficit.</p><p>I think our team was in a pretty good state of mind and we had been getting better as the series went on, Gordon said. Obviously with Boston being up 3-1, and now all of sudden youre going back home to play Game 7, after losing two, I think the advantage was to us going into the game, but obviously it wasnt enough to close it out.</p><p>Matt Bartkowski opened the scoring and Cody Franson scored twice for the Leafs giving Toronto a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.</p><p>Toronto took a two-goal lead just 2:09 into the third when Phil Ke sel scored his fourth of the series. James van Riemsdyk took the original shot and Nazem Kadri put a backhand attempt off the post before Ke sel poked home the loose puck in the crease.</p><p>Shawn Thornton nearly pulled the Bruins to within one with 3:45 gone in the third with James Reimer down and out but put his shot high and wide of the net.</p><p>Kadri then scored what appeared, at the time, to be the dagger in the series.</p><p>On a 2-on-1 rush, with Adam McQuaid the lone Bruins defenseman back, Kadri put home his first off Ryan Fitzpatrick T Shirts a Ke sel rebound giving the visitors a commanding 4-1 lead.</p><p>I just remember coming back to the bench cause I was on the ice when he made it 4-1, Lucic said. One of the things I had said when I came back to the bench was, If we can make it 4-2 before the 10-minute mark, well give ourselves a chance to force it into overtime. I remember just repeating that: just make it 4-2 before the 10-minute mark and well give ourselves a chance.</p><p>On the opposing bench, the second round seemed within reach for the Maple Leafs.</p><p>I can remember this: looking up during the game, you can obviously see the around the league scores up on the scoreboard. We saw that New York (Rangers) had won, OByrne said. I would imagine the Toronto personnel, administration, started to look at hotels, flights into New York. I remember thinking to myself, Oh this is going to be great, Toronto-New York Round 2.</p><p>When we were in good shape Carson Wentz T Shirts , it looked like New York was winning (too), I was kind of like OK, here we go, this will be great.</p><p>Boston finally beat James Reimer with 10:42 remaining in the third as Lucic circled the net and found a wide-open Nathan Horton cutting Torontos lead in half.</p><p>After we made it 4-2, (Claude Julien) basically rolled 8-9 forwards and just kind of went with it, said Lucic. I remember myself, I think I played four-and-a-half of the last 10 minutes.</p><p>He was double-shifting us. As time was winding down, we never really felt out of it. We felt like we could we started coming in waves and eventually, we were going to get that third one and the fourth one was automatically going to come.</p><p>The turning point in the game came with 3:35 remaining. Leafs forward Matt Frattin had a glorious chance to restore Torontos three-goal lead, on a breakaway, but Tuukka Rask got his right pad on the backhand attempt keeping the game within reach for Boston.</p><p>One of the biggest things that almost gets overlooked in that series was the save Tuukka made on Frattin on the breakaway, said Lucic. If Tuukka doesnt make that save, theres no chance for us to get three more. Without the save, it definitely wouldve sucked the life, and comeback, out of us.</p><p>For Dave Poulin, the Maple Leafs' VP of hockey operations at the time, what he saw from Frattins breakaway attempt was uncharacteristic of the forward.</p><p>He was such a good shooter and I think he chose to try and go to his backhand, said Poulin. That to me, when someone does something as well as he does, chooses to do something out of the ordinary, he had a tremendous shot - chose not to shoot it at a time when Tuukka Rask was probably pretty fragile. When that didn Jon Bostic Jerseys t go in, I remember right at that moment thinking, I knew we werent done, but just thinking Thats the one we needed.</p><p>Lucic pulled the Bruins to within one, poking home the rebound off a Zdeno Chara one-timer from the point with 1:22 remaining in regulation.</p><p>I think that once they made it 4-3 it was like Ooof, thats when I can feel the goosebumps right now and I think I ha